Sidewalk Talk in Wake of Blizzard 2013

Some Bay State towns and cities, including Lynn, have by-laws that require residents and businesses to remove snow from sidewalks in front of their homes and businesses. 

Not Swampscott.

The proposal has come up a number of times at town meeting but has been defeated each time, said Public Works Director Gino Cresta.

The director has been a town meeting member for 15 years.

Some communities have regulations requiring businesses in downtown areas to remove snow, the town administrator said.

In Swampscott, Public Works removes snow from sidewalks around schools and town properties.

About four sections of sidewalks remain to be done, the DPW director said.

They are: on Essex Street by the cemetery; along Loring Avenue; and by the former middle and high school on Greenwood Avenue and the Temple Israel property, the DPW director said.

DPW got a hand with snow removal on Tuesday from seven Lynn Court community service workers, a majority of whom were women, Cresta said.

The workers were performing community service, as directed by the court.

They spent four hours shoveling. They shoveled in front Machon School and on the sides of the Essex Street bridge, near Swampscott High School, Cresta said.

As far as snow clearing on streets went, DPW crews widened lanes including those on Middlesex and Burrill on Tuesday.

Mother Nature lent a hand with snowbanks. The warm temperatures and melting lowered some snowbanks by two feet, the director said.