Editorial
Sidewalks and snow

This week, many had a scare in Ashburnham when a resident at Sunnyvale Rest Home was struck by a car and injured on Central Street.

Police officers and firefighters responded quickly and appropriately dealing with both the injured man and the shaken driver. And thankfully, the victim appears to be recovering.

Many of the residents walk around the center of town to get exercise, eat at the local restaurants or simply do some shopping at local stores.

These are the things everyone hopes for when developing a downtown shopping area, and the warm weather of Sunday and Monday had many of us out walking, shopping and just enjoying the calm weather between storms.

But the problem is since December's first snowfall, which kicked off large amounts of snowfall, the sidewalks and the shoulders of the roads have rarely been cleared. This makes walking dangerous.

Whose responsibility is it to clear the sidewalks and the sides of the roads?

Does it matter?

The town's bylaws do not state responsibility, but do say snow cannot be moved onto a public ways or traffic, and to prevent snow from falling off roofs.

The problem is many of the landlords in the center of town shovel their walkways and nothing else, and that some of the buildings on Main Street don't have active landlords.

The Ashburnham police have better things to do then to give out tickets to landlords that don't shovel their sidewalks. The DPW is already working hard and is over budget for snow removal this winter.

But a solution must be found. For the short-term, police had the DPW clear way the snow along part of Central Street. This will help until the next weather event.

But a longer-term solution needs to be created, especially if town officials and residents want to create an active downtown area. Students and staff from Cushing need to be able to walk around the town in the winter, as do employees in the center of town and, maybe most of all, the residents of Sunnyvale.