The D.C. Department of Public Works is issuing fines to businesses that have not cleared their sidewalks following recent snow.
Along with the fines are warnings to homeowners that the department posted on social media Monday, noting that they are expected to clear sidewalks within eight hours of daylight after winter weather ends.
The city is issuing $150 fines to businesses and could issue $25 fines to residents for failing to get snow off the sidewalks.
The department’s Lead Solid Waste Inspector Kayanda Jones said sidewalk clearance was a matter of pedestrian safety, telling Washington’s WUSA-TV that “if anyone wants to walk the sidewalk, they’re going to slide and hurt themself because this is just a sheet of ice,” in reference to a portion of sidewalk along Rhode Island Avenue NE.
Ms. Jones said some business owners are being given only a warning if they have a good explanation for why the snow is not cleared. She added that enforcement against residents is still on hold.
“With a lot of residents, we know they are still in the process of digging out, so we aren’t focusing on residents to give them the time to do what they have to do,” Ms. Jones said.
Meanwhile, the D.C. Department of General Services is trying to clear snow from city facilities.
“This stuff is like concrete at this point, snow-crete we like to say, so it is a tedious manual process. We’ve even had to use Bobcats to clear some of our walkways and sidewalks,” DGS Director Delano Hunter told Maryland’s WDVM-TV.
