For a fee, the Town of Amherst will help clear the sidewalks in front of your home or business if you live in one of the special zones.
AMHERST, N.Y. — We’ve heard from many 2 On Your Side viewers who are frustrated with how the snow removal process is going in their neighborhoods.
But in the Town of Amherst, there’s a sidewalk snow relief program that’s helping people who own property where snow removal can be a huge problem.
In most places, like in Buffalo, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to get the snow off the sidewalk, but in Amherst, some people get a little help.
About 10 years ago, Amherst launched the Sidewalk Snow Relief Program. Now it doesn’t make it so you don’t have to shovel the sidewalks in front of your home or business, it’s like a helping hand.
“It is a relief process where we will do the best we can, but we can’t be expected that we’re going to not have it slippery. We’re not going to salt it or make it where people couldn’t possibly fall. It’s up to the, again, the property owner to make sure that it’s still safe. We’re just providing the relief the best we can, but we have a lot to do,” Town of Amherst Highway Superintendent Patrick Lucey said.
Here’s how it works. The town has certain zones in the program where they decided that from December 1 to March 31, if you pay a fee of less than a dollar per linear foot every year, you can have someone from the town come out to help clear the snow that the big plows put there and pile up. A lot of the places in the program are on the main roads such as Sheridan and Maple.
“To be clear on this, it’s a sidewalk relief program. It’s not that we are always going to bring the sidewalks or clear them down to the concrete or the asphalt, whatever they may be, but we give relief to the people clearing the sidewalks. A perfect example is Maple Road. Maple Road has sidewalks very close to the street. It’s a five-lane highway that Erie County plows, but the Town of Amherst is required through the sidewalk relief district to clear the sidewalks,” Lucey said.
A lot of the places on the list are also near places of worship or a school.
It doesn’t get you out of following the town code, but it’s so popular that the town would love to expand it.
“Ideally, it would be nice if we could do every sidewalk in the town, but with 332 miles, lane miles, of town roads, and then if every street has a sidewalk, which they don’t, but let’s say 80 percent do, we still would have to clear on both sides of the street over 500 miles of sidewalks. And to put it in perspective, it took us four days to do four miles along Maple Road, eight if you count both sides,” Lucey said.
It does take equipment and people to do this, but if your town doesn’t have this program, you can ask them to look into it.
Also, a reminder as you’re getting out there to do the sidewalks that the fire hydrants need to be cleared too.
In most cases you are responsible for the sidewalks in front of your house. Your village, town, or city will have its own rules about sidewalk snow removal.
Here are the laws in some Western New York communities:
