Snowy sidewalks still reason for concern in Columbia Falls
Snowy sidewalks continue to be a hot topic of conversation among city leaders. At last week’s Columbia Falls city council meeting, Mayor Don Barnhart noted that there’s a wide inconsistency in the clearing of sidewalks along Nucleus Avenue. Under city law, business and adjacent landowners are required to clear the sidewalks in front of their properties.
Some do it better than others. One business, Barnhart noted, just clears a narrow path, while others clear the full width and others don’t clear them at all.
He suggested the city change the law, particularly in the business district of Nucleus Avenue, where police could first give a warning and then ticket scofflaws — perhaps $25 to start.
About 4.5 percent of all the people living in the city limits don’t have a vehicle, noted city manager Susan Nicosia.
The city is also enforcing sidewalk cleanup on U.S. Highway 2 this winter for the first time. That’s also seeing mixed results, with some businesses clearing them and others not.
The problem on Highway 2 appears to be how and where to put the snow. The Montana Department of Transportation clears both Nucleus and Highway 2, but on Nucleus, it doesn’t plow in the sidewalks, it plows to the center of the road and then hauls away the berms after a storm.
That was an option on Highway 2, but because of safety concerns, it wasn’t implemented. It also would have kept people from crossing the highway freely.
So the state and the city came to a compromise, where the snow is “windrowed” to the edge, but not completely blown up onto the walk. It sort of works. There’s not as much snow on the sidewalks, but the right hand driving lane was narrowed. Plus, when the state came back to clear out the resulting berms, in knocked the snow back onto the sidewalks that businesses had just cleared.
Council has decided to ride it out and see how it goes the rest of the winter, but Barnhart also suggested a meeting with businesses later in the spring to come up with ideas for better solutions.
In other news:
- Council approved a two lot subdivision, called “Sled Hill Subdivision” on the corner of Fifth Avenue East and Eighth Street. The lot is owned by the Melashenko Living Trust and is zoned commercial. It’s just east of the bike shop.
- Council heard from city finance director Sandy Carlson that at the halfway point, the city is in good financial shape. She gave the council a multi-faceted report on the city’s budget to date.