WINDHAM – A winter with back-to-back storms has exposed a weakness, some say, in Windham’s snow removal policy, in which sidewalk clearing is considered a distant second priority to road clearing.

The policy, which is in its sixth year, was approved by the Windham Town Council in 2005. But because of frequent storms this winter, the town’s public works crews have had little time between storms to address the four-and-a-half miles of sidewalks.

Citing public safety concerns, Windham resident Martin Shuer has in recent weeks been lobbying town leaders to rethink and retool the town’s sidewalk snow removal policy.

Shuer is a parent who visits the school campus in Windham Center daily. Windham’s sidewalks, he says, need to be given equal priority as the roads in order to avoid incidents similar to Jan. 13’s hit-and-run in which a drunk driver struck two pedestrians in North Windham. In that case, the sidewalk had yet to be cleared in the area near Patman’s Redemption.

According to Windham Town Manager Tony Plante, the current sidewalk clearing policy was a Town Council-requested cost-cutting measure. However, the policy was quickly amended after complaints were received during the winter of 2005-2006. The council revisited the issue, Plante said, and voted in January 2006 to commence sidewalk clearing once again. However, the council at the time made it clear sidewalks would still be a secondary priority, cleared only after all roads had been plowed.

The council in 2006 “restored the service to its prior level, which would be a ‘best effort service,’ meaning that the roads come first, that after the crew was done with the immediate storm operations that they would come back the next day and conduct sidewalk snow removal operations during regular working hours, i.e. no overtime. No nights, no weekends, no holidays,” Plante explained.

The policy had pretty much gone unnoticed by townspeople until this winter when December and January storms rolled in one after the other. With no downtime between storms, public works crews, Director Doug Fortier said, had been unable to catch up with sidewalk clearing. South Windham, in fact, had only received sidewalk attention for the first time last week. Because of the back-to-back storms, Plante said he has received several complaints this winter, especially from South Windham residents.

“Priority is Windham Center, next is North Windham and then South Windham,” said Fortier. “Right now, we’re all caught up. But I know it can be one to three days just to get the roads back to square one, as I call it. That’s just for the roads. Sidewalks policy is that we work on them after we get the roads done, and no overtime is used … If we had the money, we could do much more obviously,” Fortier said.

Shuer isn’t so sure more money is the answer. He says the town actually spends more by leaving the sidewalks to sit and harden so that the town’s manned snow-blowing machine is unable to throw the snow. Instead, large dump trucks and front-end loaders are used to remove the snow to the town’s leaf and brush pile area adjacent to the Public Works building on Windham Center Road.

Shuer, who intends to bring up the topic in upcoming budget discussions, believes the town could avoid these hauling expenses if it removed sidewalk snow using the town’s blower immediately after a storm once roads have been cleared. Shuer likened the task to his own driveway snow removal.

“Homeowners know it’s much easier and there’s much less time and expense involved if you don’t wait to remove the snow,” he said. “Long delays in which the sidewalks don’t get any attention is the Achilles’ heel of Windham’s snow removal program. It’s several times the expense, so there is no logic in continuing to operate this way, in my opinion.”

Plante, in response, said dump trucks and bucket loaders will always be needed to remove the tops of the snow banks to improve visibility at intersections. And while he agrees that removing sidewalk snow by heavy equipment is more costly than using the town’s snow-blowing machine, he said the town has to use the dump trucks anyway to perform other snow removal operations.

“You can find yourself in a situation where you have to use heavier equipment,” Plante said, “but you also have intersections that you’re going to have to use heavy equipment to clear anyways, so does it really is save the town?”

When contacted for comment regarding the sidewalks in Windham Center, school officials said they haven’t heard complaints from students.

Windham Middle School Principal Hal Shortsleeve said he understands Shuer’s concern for public safety but “I haven’t heard the sidewalks being an issue for students.” Shortsleeve said he is more worried about the intersection at Windham Center Road and Route 202, which students have to cross to access Corsetti’s Market, which they frequent between school and extracurricular activities.

“I really don’t like the fact they’re walking down there, but for me, the intersection is more dangerous than the road. I was pleased when they put the light in there,” Shortsleeve said.

Superintendent Sandy Prince likewise hasn’t received complaints regarding the sidewalk clearing.

“I haven’t had any calls on it. At least people haven’t called this office about it,” he said.

Inese Gruber, director of the Windham Public Library, which is connected via sidewalk to the school campus, says Windham Public Works has “been very good” clearing the sidewalks and parking lot of the library.

Windham students walk along Windham Center Road after school on Tuesday. While sidewalks are now clear, the town’s snow removal policy has come under scrutiny recently when sidewalks were not cleared immediately after storms. Town officials say it is a budget issue, as priority for snow removal is given to roads. (Photo by Rich Obrey)