Up until the past few days, we’ve had a brutal start to 2015, weather-wise. With snow and ice (often black ice) piling up, causing hazardous driving and walking conditions, pedestsrians in particular remain at home when they can. Not only is this a problem for Great Neck residents, as well as those living just about anywhere in the Northeast, but the treacherous conditions are a real downturn for businesses, shops and local restaurants. When severe winter storms keep people at home, the local economy suffers. Yet, the reality, it is those local businesse owners who are the ones that can ease the situation and clear the sidewalks.
Great Neck’s Middle Neck Road, and some off-streets, are the community’s main business districts—in Great Neck Plaza, in Great Neck Estates and in the Village of Great Neck (the Old Village). Middle Neck Road is a Nassau County road, and while the county is responsible for clearning the snowy roads (and they do clean their snowy roads), it is the responsibility of the property owners to clean the snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of their businesses. The county, the Town of North Hempstead and the business area villages all will clean their own snow-filled roads, but the job of cleaning the sidewalk remains with the property owners.
What if the snow piles up and the sidewalks are not cleared? At that point, after a certain amount of alotted time, the municipality involved will issue summonses, summonses that add up until the sidewalks are cleared. In Great Neck Plaza, Great Neck’s main business district, if the sidewalk snow piles are not cleared after a reasonable period of time (the day after the snowstorm), the village crews will clean those sidewalks and charge the property owner for the work.
Several Middle Neck Road business district streets in the Plaza are occupied by Great Neck Estates businesses. However, with these stores, while the acutal business property is in the Estates, the Plaza governs the sidewalks. Here, too, the property owners must abide by Plaza rules and clear their sidewalks.
All of the local municipalities did state that they clear all sidewalks in front of their own offices (village halls) and clean the sidewalks adjoining any of their other properties, such as village parking lots and streets that provide access to their offices.
If a dangerous ice-filled and snow-filled sidewalk blocks your walk in town, call the municipality involved and they will get to work on the issue.
