{"id":23036,"date":"2019-02-21T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23036"},"modified":"2019-02-21T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:01:30","slug":"inside-aurora-depth-perception-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-depth-perception-2\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Depth Perception"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once again the age old Aurora question has been raised; at what point should the Town start or stop shoveling snow from its roads and sidewalks?
\nAs it seems to do every winter, Council has debated and ultimately declined to approve the removal of windrows, those mountains of snow deposited at the ends of our driveways when the plows go by.
\nWhile it would be nice to have that service, and not have to worry about chipping away at the rapidly freezing wall of ice, it would mean another increase in taxes, and no one wants that.
\nHigher service costs also explain why snow plows don\u2019t clear the streets until 8 cm of snow has fallen. Except for Yonge, which get attention once 5 cm has fallen.
\n5 cm is also the magic number for sidewalks to be cleared.
\nAurora is fortunate to have a service that clears all sidewalks. Many neighbouring municipalities do not, or just the main walkways are cleared.
\nIn locations where there is no full service, the residents are responsible for ensuring the sidewalks in front of their properties are cleared in a thorough and timely manner.
\nThat\u2019s what I remember where I grew up. Clearing the driveway also meant shovelling the entire length of our sidewalk.
\nWhile having the Town do the work sounds wonderful, there are pros and cons to public vs private sidewalk clearing.
\nIf the residents are tasked with the job, it saves tax dollars, and the sidewalks tend to be cleared of snow and ice, even if well below the 5 cm threshold.
\nOn the negative side, it\u2019s more work for homeowners. And for those who use the sidewalks, there\u2019s no guarantee the homeowners will clear them, at least voluntarily, which necessitates increased enforcement efforts.
\nWith the Town doing the work, it costs more tax-wise, but you\u2019re guaranteed clean, sanded sidewalks in a relatively timely manner.
\nCountering this, is that you\u2019re guaranteed clean, sanded sidewalks only when snowfall levels reach 5 cm. If less than that falls, it\u2019s periculo tuo uti, or use at your own risk.
\nSadly, many folks of all ages have no option but to \u201crisk it\u201d in these circumstances; kids going to school, people exercising or walking their dogs, those trying to reach their super mailbox …. the list goes on.
\nI never really thought about this risk until recently when I was out for a stroll in our neighbourhood. A couple of centimetres of snow had fallen, which nicely concealed a large sheet of ice on a depressed slab of sidewalk.
\nDespite wearing boots with good traction, down I went.
\nWhile my wrist broke my fall, my fall broke my wrist.
\nAlthough I did break a bone in my hand, on the \u201couch\u201d and recovery scale, I was fortunate that it wasn\u2019t as bad as it could have been. Plus I got to meet all the nice folks at the fracture clinic at Southlake (really, they\u2019re great people).
\nThis experience got me thinking about two things. First, many thanks to those who altruistically shovel and sand or salt their sidewalks for the benefit of their neighbours each snowfall, whether there\u2019s enough \u201cofficial\u201d snow for the plows to be out or not.
\nSecondly, it made me ponder the standards that are in place in Town for snow removal, whether it be for sidewalks, roadways or windrows.
\nWhile we all want to see these services improved, such as all windrows being cleared, or the plows being out on the roads and sidewalks as soon as snow starts to accumulate, and not only after several centimetres have fallen, doing so comes at a financial cost, and no one is a fan of that.
\nBut not improving them has other types of costs, as well, as I\u2019ve now experienced first-hand, so to speak.
\nWith no clear right or wrong, and arguments for both sides, this explains why such things as windrow removal and snow clearing standards are debated every year in Aurora, and likely will be each winter for years to come. <\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Once again the age old Aurora question has been raised; at what point should the Town start or stop shoveling snow from its roads and sidewalks? As it seems to do every winter, Council has debated and ultimately declined to approve the removal of windrows, those mountains of snow deposited at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Zy","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:51:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}