Chomedey residents warn of lawsuit if snow removal not improved
A small but angry nucleus of residents on Chomedey’s Ridgewood and Korman avenues is threatening to launch a lawsuit against the City of Laval over what they claim are persistent problems with snow removal, which they blame partly on a new sidewalk and street width arrangement they claim is hampering snow equipment.
Narrower streets
According to Christofer Vourakis, a homeowner on Ridgewood, the problems stem from a change the city has been gradually implementing in the width of Chomedey’s residential streets, which were previously nine metres wide with 128-centimetre-width sidewalks.
In many municipalities now, including Laval, when new sidewalks are built, they are often wider in deference to a growing awareness of increased pedestrian traffic as well as wheelchair access, while the streets grow correspondingly narrower, sometimes diminishing the amount of available parking space.
“They shrank our street by a metre and took half our parking away,” said Vourakis, noting that revised snow removal regulations now require cars to be parked on one side whenever snow removal operations have to get underway.
Another lawsuit?
Another Ridgewood homeowner, Sevag Merdinian, has four children and three vehicles. His main complaint: the city doesn’t respect its own snow removal rules, he claims, and doesn’t come to clear the snow at the posted hours, as they are supposed to.
He successfully sued the City of Laval in 2016 over a waterworks repair under the street that damaged his household, and says he is prepared to launch another lawsuit over the snow removal problem. He currently also has submitted a claim to the city for damage to his SUV’s windshield, which he alleges was caused by negligence by snow removal workers.
“I will sue them again, I will mortgage my house and sue them once more or anything that is owed to us,” he said. “I’m ready,” added Vourakis, saying he is willing to join the lawsuit as a co-claimant.
Unscheduled snow ops
They and other residents on Ridgewood maintain that even when the Public Works department places sandwich board signs advising of a snow removal op to take place between certain set hours, snow removal crews turn up unpredictably, demanding cars be moved – failing which they get towed.
“They showed up on Feb. 10 at eight in the morning, horns blaring to evacuate the street,” said Vourakis, while claiming that on this particular occasion the crews didn’t even bother putting out sandwich boards.
According to new winter parking rules on Ridgewood, there is no parking on the south and west sides (even-number addresses) from Nov. 15 – Apr. 14 when snow removal ops are scheduled to take place. However, cars can be parked on the north and east sides (even address numbers) when snow removal is underway, but at no other time.
Poorly-cleared sidewalks
With a greater scarcity than before of street parking space, and occasionally arbitrary snow removal requirements that sometimes oblige residents to rise from bed in the middle of the night, he questions the City of Laval’s authority when their workers don’t even seem to respect the posted snow removal rules.
He maintains that the sidewalk snow removal on Ridgewood is so poor, he has no choice but to hire a private contractor to clear the public walkway in front of his home.
And indeed, while the sidewalk in front of his house was pristine last Saturday when the Laval News dropped by, the sidewalks elsewhere on Ridgewood looked like they hadn’t been cleared since a day or two before, following a snow and sleet weather event.
Gear’s got up to the job
The residents claim that the city’s existing sidewalk snow removal equipment has proven to be inadequate to meet the increased demand from the wider pedestrian walkways.
“They can’t push it because there’s so much snow and their wheels slip,” said Emanuel Axais,” a Korman Ave. homeowner. “The machine is too small and can’t clean the widened sidewalks,” added Merdinian.
Local city councillor Aglaia Revelakis maintains the situation would have been much different if the administration had only bothered to conduct consultations of residents locally, rather than implementing a one-size-fits-all plan.
“The citizens of every district, every street, should be consulted,” said Revelakis, who is a member of the Action Laval city council opposition. “Because these are the citizens that live here and know the problems on their streets.”
Warning lights coming
In an interview with the Laval News, Laval city councillor Ray Khalil, who is responsible for public works on the executive-committee, acknowledged that the city may not always get things right, but that “there’s always room for perfection.” He said one of the issues with Chomedey is that it’s a very high density area.
the city will soon start installing a new illuminated snow removal warning system
“In terms of population per kilometre, it’s one of our more dense neighbourhoods, and more dense means more cars. So, obviously the more there are cars, the more there will be times when people are respecting or not respecting the alternate parking when it’s needed, and this slows down things.”
Khalil said the city will soon start installing a new illuminated snow removal warning system, that will ultimately eliminate the need for sandwich board notices, and that it should improve efficiency.
“With the lights, we’re going to be able to be very flexible,” he said. “If we know that there’s a snow coming on Friday, then on Saturday we can turn on the lights and get the job done.”
