Residents may have trouble maneuvering through Bangor’s sidewalks until the numerous feet of snow that has blanketed the city melts in the spring.
Just five workers at a time are responsible for clearing nearly 84 miles of sidewalks throughout Bangor, according to Bangor Public Works Director Dana Wardwell.
Outside the downtown, about 62 miles of sidewalks along roads that connect neighborhoods with businesses and schools and dubbed “priority 1” streets by the city will not get cleared until late next week, Wardwell said. The remaining nearly 21 miles of sidewalks along other residential streets that are considered “priority 2” are not likely to be cleared at all this season.
The city’s inability to clear the sidewalks has made it difficult for resident Keith Skeffington, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, to maneuver throughout the city. Because Bangor’s sidewalks are often impassable after snowstorms, Skeffington is often forced to roll along the street. Since moving to Bangor 15 years ago, he’s been nearly struck by cars four or five times on such occasions.
“I understand we are not a thriving metropolis. We only have a budget of X. But still, we should be treated as equally as you or anybody else. Whether it is a priority 1 or priority 2 street, it shouldn’t matter,” Skeffington said. “People with disabilities aren’t a priority 2 issue. We’re just as much a priority as anyone else. But it doesn’t always get looked at like that.”
Bangor Public Works crews started clearing priority 2 sidewalks just a couple of years ago after residents asked that they tackle them, Wardwell said. But getting sidewalks cleared at all is a difficult and expensive task.
Between fiscal years 2008 and 2016, Bangor spent on average $112,893 per year on sanding and plowing sidewalks, according to data provided by Wardwell. The city owns five snow-clearing tractors that cost about $130,000 each. Those tractors typically last about six years, forcing the city to buy a new one most years, he said.
The tractors often break down when they hit trash cans, toys or other items that are buried in the snow. And crews often need to plow or sand the same section of a sidewalk multiple times during a snowstorm.
“People don’t realize how difficult it is to keep sidewalks open,” Wardwell said. “It’s a thankless job. Without a doubt, it is the toughest job for public works, keeping the sidewalks open.”
After a snowstorm, one of the tractors is stationed downtown while the other four are responsible for clearing the sidewalks of various regions of the city, he said.
After this week’s blizzard, which piled snow as high as 24.2 inches over two days in Bangor, public works crews worked 32 straight hours clearing snow and ice from sidewalks and have been working on 12-hour shifts since, Wardwell said. Crews also could work up to 24 hours straight during the snowstorm forecast for Wednesday night.
The city is doing the best it can, said City Manager Cathy Conlow. But the equipment and labor for clearing sidewalks is expensive, and the city can spend only so much money on it while keeping the property tax rate under control.
“At the end of the day, we could use more resources,” Conlow said. “But we could use more resources for lots of different things, and we need to balance the needs of the entire city.”
City Council Chairman Joe Baldacci said the council would consider spending additional funds on sidewalk snow removal if they were told more was needed. However, Wardwell said he was happy with the way the department is staffed and called the sidewalk snow removal budget “adequate.”
Cities and towns in Maine are mostly immune to liability claims if someone were to slip and fall on municipal sidewalks, according to Timothy Kenlan, a lawyer with the Lewiston-based firm Berman Simmons, who represents slip-and-fall lawsuits across Maine.
Still, some residents say Bangor needs to do a much better job than it has at clearing its sidewalks. The city is a service provider for much of the state, and having cleared sidewalks is essential, especially around the downtown, for businesses to accept deliveries and people to get into shops, said Kierie Piccininni, an organizer of the bicycle and pedestrian group Walk-n-Roll Bangor.
“It’s my belief and experience that this is difficult to manage as people clear snow at different times and sometimes not at all, which is incredibly difficult for pedestrians,” she said. “It is near impossible for someone with disabilities using a walker or wheelchair to travel in downtown.”