Lynn Issues Hundreds Of Tickets For Unshoveled Sidewalks
LYNN (CBS) - Travis Gresham dodged cars as he walked in the street in Lynn just to avoid the snow.
"Totally unsafe," he said.
It's a decision Travis and other Lynn pedestrians have been faced with daily. Do they trudge through piles of snow and ice on sidewalks that haven't been shoveled or take the street?
"I always see people struggling to go around here to get back on the other sidewalk," said Jim Bell of Hamilton Street.
Bell keeps his sidewalk as clear as he can but he can't say the same for the property next door, a vacant park parcel that clearly has remained untouched through the last several snowfalls.
"Every year this is what we end up with. They never shovel," he said.
With snow piles growing taller down the streets of Lynn, the city is cracking down. It's stepped up enforcement. 525 tickets issued since the first of the year. Just last week more than 100 citations went out to property owners.
The fine for an unshoveled sidewalk is 50 dollars per day. Residential owners have 10 hours after the snow stops to clear the walk or face the fine.
The fines are meant as a deterrent. It doesn't always work. William Fogg says his neighbors haven't cleared their sidewalk in years.
"I'm out there in the snow storm by myself, sometimes three or four hours a day. These people never do anything," he said.
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