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Another shot at the Town’s snow WALL

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In Collingwood
Dec 19th, 2010
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By RICHARD ROHMER Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin December 17 2010
My Collingwood snow-wall column last week was read by a hand (or fist?) full of E-B readers. But obviously not by members of our knowledgeable Town Council.
Or at least by those in the upper echelons who can give instructions to those on-staff worthies who run the Works Department and the snow plow operators.
Why do I say this? Because the Hurontario Street snow WALLS as of Tuesday afternoon are back again and more impenetrable (that means we pedestrians and arrive downtown by car people can’t get over or through them) than ever.
Add to that the fact that we are in the presence of the biggest, longest snowstorm/ squalls in long (try 25 years and running) memory.
Yesterday, Monday, was a complete travel dud out of my driveway. The Town plow in the morning had left a three-foot snow wall at the end of my driveway. Typical.
Our personal snow blow firm didn’t show up until after dark. But when they did I negotiated an early Tuesday morning blow out of our wall so Mary-O and I could get our car out to the street and on our way to a big Toronto luncheon celebrating the life and achievements of our close departed friend, the great Premier John Robarts.
Tuesday morning the lads were here at about 7 a.m. Cleaned out the driveway and the Town’s three-footer, and we were finally on the street ready to go.
But by this time the high wind and never ending snow convinced me to forget about Toronto.
Too dangerous.
 Instead, at about 9 a.m., I got into my car, made it out onto the street then targeted Shoppers Drug Mart (for letters) and Tim’s (Fedex to courier first copies of my new book, The Building of the CN Tower, to guess where–the CN Tower).
When I parked in front of Shoppers Drug Mart guess what? I was again confronted by a three-foot, impenetrable, unopened Town snow WALL. What to do?
Ah. I could see a possible uphill foot path over the WALL up at Tim’s. Nothing available through or over the snow mountain to the south. I made it (almost falling in the process) over the Tim’s foot path.
Did the reverse on the way back. Then to parkable Loblaws (few customers). After that I drove south on Hurontario past the growing Town snow WALLS.
And what did I see? Why, the Town’s huge, orange painted snow picker-up-and-dumper grinding northward on the west side of Hurontario with no access slots through the WALL anywhere to be seen.
But what was the snow picker-up doing? As it moved it was collecting the sidewalk surface snow and carefully depositing/dumping it on top of the already high WALL!
Can you believe it?
That same machine could make a safe, clean cut pathway through the WALL in about 30 seconds. It could do so in front of the door of every second or third hard-hit shop on Hurontario Street.
That simple task would open up the WALL for tax-paying citizens who arrive downtown by car (almost all of them do) to shop and do business. But because of the Town’s refusal or failure to open up its WALL, the drivers-turned-pedestrians are
prevented/barred from getting to their destinations.
No customers/clients equals no business, equals no municipal business taxes.
Generally speaking, the Town is home to hundreds of senior citizens who physically cannot manage getting over the WALL. They urgently need the Town to make those simple access slots.
I happen to be one of them. Enough already!

 

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