With a dusting of April snow expected today, the white stuff also will be a topic of conversation at Thursday’s Hays City Commission work session, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
According to the work session agenda, commissioners had requested rules regarding snow removal from sidewalks be placed on a future agenda.
According to City Manager Toby Dougherty, the city of Hays had an ordinance requiring removal of snow from sidewalks until 2005 that was rarely, if ever enforced.
After a significant snow and ice storm in 2005, however, members of the city commission instructed staff to begin enforcing the requirement. Shortly after, however, the ordinance was repealed.
Dougherty said he reached out to other Kansas cities to see which had ordinances and which enforced those rules. Of the 16 communities who had an ordinance, only one — Bonner Springs — reported the rule was actively enforced. Most others responded the rule was either not enforced, rarely enforced or enforced on a complaint basis only.
“City staff would not recommend adopting an ordinance requiring snow removal from sidewalks,” Dougherty wrote in his memo to commissioners.