KITCHENER - Carrie Wilson believes it's important to shovel her sidewalk - kids go down her street every day on their way to school, and she remembers slogging through snow with a stroller when her son was young.

But she was astounded to receive a notice recently from the city for failing to shovel her sidewalk, after a snowfall that she thought wasn't enough to justify getting out the shovel.

"I thought I'd let nature take its course. I thought by afternoon it'd be gone," she said.

The notices, which she and most of her neighbours received, astounded her.

"I was shocked, really," she said. "I think they're being a little heavy-handed. I think they're using the resources of the bylaw officers in the wrong way."

Waterloo Region residents were digging out of a snowstorm Tuesday, when weather caused closures of schools, universities, libraries and more. Forecasts are calling for still more snow and messy weather on Friday.

In the midst of the wintry weather, many Kitchener residents were less than thrilled with the city's approach to snowy sidewalks.

Coun. Dave Schnider said he has fielded a number of calls in the past couple of weeks from frustrated constituents, including one from a neighbour in his 70s who regularly shovels not only his own walk but those of elderly neighbours. Despite clearing his walk and putting down salt, he got a notice because there was a patch of ice in one spot.

Evan DeViller is new to Kitchener, having moved into his home in late November. He too believes shovelling his walk is the right thing to do, but received a notice recently for failing to clear it to city standards.

"I was kind of like, 'I guess this is my welcome to the neighbourhood,'" he said.

He went on the city's webpage on sidewalk snow clearing, but said there was no indication or photos showing what's an acceptable job and what could net you a notice.

Kitchener expects property owners to shovel the sidewalk in front of their property down to bare pavement within 24 hours after snow has stopped falling. The city previously only sent out bylaw officers if it got a complaint, but after more people said too many of the city's sidewalks were impassable, it hired four bylaw officers on contract to proactively go out and inspect sidewalks across the city.

Schnider says council will have to revisit that approach when it considers the issue this spring.

"For me, I guess when we did this proactive bylaw, in my mind, bylaw would go after people who had made absolutely no effort, those people who never clear their sidewalk," he said.

"Those that have made a sincere effort, I think we should somehow give them some thanks and not stick the warning on them right away."

Like DeViller, he feels the city could do a better job of communicating what it expects from homeowners and how it can help. For instance, the city offers free sand that people can use on their sidewalks. Its website says people can get the sand at the city's operations centre at 131 Goodrich Dr., but doesn't list the 275 sandboxes around the city where residents can also pick up sand.

DeViller and Wilson say they'd be happy to pay more taxes and have city crews clear the sidewalks, something the city estimates would cost at least $3.6 million a year as well as $4 million to buy equipment.

Wilson used to work in Guelph where the city clears sidewalks. "It wasn't always perfect, but your major streets, within a day or two, they're cleared," she said.

Schnider isn't convinced. "Mobility is a very, very important issue. You don't want to see somebody with a mobility issue not be able to get out to a bus or to shopping or the grocery store," he said. But he doesn't think the city could do the job as well, or as quickly, as residents.

He's looked at the situation in Elmira, where the municipality clears sidewalks. It takes two plows up to 10 hours to clear the town's 68 kilometres of sidewalk, and the most common complaint is that walks aren't cleared quickly enough. Kitchener, by comparison, has 1,200 kilometres of sidewalk.

He said there may be other solutions that are less costly, such as a combination of stepped-up enforcement aimed at the worst offenders, and increased funding for mobility transit.

City council will reassess the proactive approach this spring. In the meantime, people can comment on the program until March 3 in a city-run survey.

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cthompson@therecord.com

Twitter: @ThompsonRecord