Snow, Sidewalks And Sag Harbor

The South Fork endured its first major blizzard in a handful of years last month, and the weekend storm delighted many — Pierson Hill was crowded with sledders, and the blanket of snow turned Main Street, already a picturesque tableau, into a Norman Rockwell winter scene.

That was, until you tried to traverse that scene.

For well over a decade, business owners and residents have sparred with the Village of Sag Harbor over its snow removal policy. Per village code, it is the responsibility of property owners to clear the sidewalks in front of their homes or businesses (or rental properties) after each snowfall, to ensure residents can safely walk the 2-square-mile village and get to local businesses and restaurants.

But the reality is, with many second-home owners or businesses that are not always open or, in the time of COVID-19, operating at full capacity, often many village sidewalks remain covered in snow and ice despite the code, pushing pedestrians into Main Street to avoid a potentially nasty fall.

Code enforcement has never been able to keep up with the task of tracking down those who have failed to shovel their sidewalks, and even when they do it is clear that some business owners are willing to take a fine and consider it a cost of doing business, maybe less costly than hiring someone to clear the way.

The village has been generous with sidewalk space for businesses during the pandemic, and that is a welcome change from the past, but it does own the sidewalks and does have equipment that members of the Public Works Department use to clear village-owned sidewalks not in front of residences or businesses. Other villages in the region, including East Hampton and Westhampton Beach, take responsibility to clear the business district sidewalks.

It is time for the Village of Sag Harbor to commit to clearing sidewalks downtown after storms, instead of expecting property owners to do the job. It has, for years, promised strong and effective enforcement of the existing policy, and that has not materialized. What is left is a dangerous situation that in a village the size of Sag Harbor could be easily remedied, especially given how little snow we actually get these days.