City of Mount Pleasant to address snowplow damage to homeowners' lawns
Damaged sod sits next to a sidewalk on the east side of Mount Pleasant on Nov. 22.
Some Mount Pleasant residents are frustrated with recent damage done to their lawns from sidewalk snowplowing that won’t be fixed until the spring.
Mount Pleasant recently rolled out new additions to their sidewalk snow removal routes, which included using new equipment, Director of Public Works John Zang said. However, he said there’s a learning curve with using the new equipment. Many residents experienced damaged sod in their yards along sidewalks around town.
Zang said the issue was most prevalent in the east side of town along roads like East Broadway Street, Brown Street, East High Street and Crapo Street. He said damage on the west side of town was caused by a particular new snow plow.
While new equipment was being used on both sides of the city, the plow on the east side had a piece of metal that Zang said was wider than the one used on the west side of the city. This is what may have caused the damage.
However, the damage only happened on certain stretches of sidewalk, which made it hard to pinpoint where the city went wrong, Zang said. He said the new equipment could have played a role – he hasn’t seen any damage like this before. Zang also said overgrowth from homeowners not edging the grass might have snagged onto the plow, causing chunks to tear off.
Zang said a piece of thick rubber was attached underneath the steel with notches on each end prevent more damage during plowing.
Some residents whose lawns were affected were frustrated with city staff. Community member Dana Reyes said the damage done at her home by East High Street looked ugly, and she thought a well-meaning neighbor plowed it. She said she’s concerned about safety when the dirt hardens in the cold.
Community member Kimberly Curtiss’s lawn on Broadway Street had a long stretch of damage in front of her home. She was out of town when it happened, and she expressed concern about the possibility of more damage occurring before spring.
At the Nov. 25 City Commission meeting, commissioner Petro Tolas said he found it hard to believe that the workers operating the plows didn’t stop the machines after noticing the damage.
“The first thing they should have done is stop called the supervisor,” Tolas said. “I don’t know if that was done, but I don’t think it was done, because why would we have blocks and blocks and blocks that are all torn up?”
Zang said he doesn’t know the monetary amount of damage yet, but he said the city will fix homeowners' sod in the spring when the ground is no longer frozen. However, Reyes and Curtiss said the city should do something sooner.
“It looks awful,” Reyes said. “Can they do something right now and come pick up all that dirt?”
Curtiss said residents pay a lot of taxes to live in Mount Pleasant, so she said it would be nice if the city could fix an issue it created.
