SALISBURY, Md.- If you live in Salisbury, the city wants you clear the snow-covered sidewalks in front of your home. The current law states that residents have 24 hours to do so, or else face a steep fine.
Becky Larkin, who is a mail carrier in the city, said that it is not easy delivering the mail in bitter cold temperatures, but it is her job.
"It slows you down, you walk so tensely that you are exhausted at the end of the day," Larkin said.
She said the job becomes even harder to do when some people on her route in Salisbury do not clean their snowy or icy sidewalks.
"Anything that they can do you know, throw some salt down there just make a path wide enough for us to put one foot in front of the other to your house or to your mailbox," she said.
Tom Stevenson, Salisbury's director of Neighborhood services and code compliance, said city residents should clear their sidewalks or be fined.
"We can write a municipal citation in the amount of $50 for the first day of non-compliance," he explained. "Each additional day is also a $50 fine and we can write that for five consecutive days."
Those citations can add up to a total of $250 in fines, Stevenson said. It is a hefty amount Fred Core said he cannot afford to pay.
"You know, I really don't have the money if somebody tries to sue me for not cleaning up the sidewalk," Core said. "And the mail people, they won't bring your mail and if they slip and fall they might sue me."
Jean St. Val said that as a landlord, he lets his tenants know that it is their responsibility to clean up. Otherwise if he gets fined then the tenant will have to pay.
"In my part I would do my very best in a situation like where someone wouldn't fall on my property and break legs or arms or anything, I would not want that to happen," St. Val said.
Stevenson said that there is a provision in the law which allows the elderly to apply for an exemption. The exemption will allow elderly citizen to request for the city to clean snowy or icy sidewalks but for a very small service fee.
(Photo: WBOC)
