For Hicksville residents and local businesses, this entire winter has brought nothing but snow—and lots of it. With misleading forecasts, school closings and iced-over streets, the winter season has not been kind. While most kids have enjoyed multiple days off, it’s the parents, elderly and business owners who have truly suffered.
For storefront businesses, like Phoenix Comics and Collectibles on Stewart Avenue, the reliance on snow removal falls on the landlords and staff, which shop owner Peter Gong said “affects business significantly.” Gong explained that his store relies heavily on shipments and transportation, especially every Tuesday, when he goes out to the UPS Center in Uniondale to pick up his weekly supply of new comics.
“If they are behind schedule, I’m behind schedule and then customers have to wait,” Gong said.
Several other local businesses also found that snow deters customers, even from restaurants, like Dimaggio’s Pizza on Newbridge Road. “People think we’re closed, so it’s always a slow day when it snows,” said Andrew Etergineoso, a shift manager at the 30-year-old pizzeria. Etergineoso relies on a snow plow service, but also shovels and lays down rock salt, so customers have more accessibility to the restaurant.
Another establishment that focuses on their staff for snow removal is The Headliner Bar and Grill on Old Country Road. Bartender Tiffany O’Rourke explained that the chefs and staff remove the snow themselves from the back lot and storefront, but they too rely on snow removal. She said while business is generally slow in the winter, it doesn’t stop people from coming down on a snow day.
Of course, people can only rely so much on the town’s snowplows to dig them out of their blocks and onto main roads; many residents also felt ill informed of upcoming plowing services and storm notifications. In fact, cars can still be seen parked in front of homes, which prevents plows from clearing the entire street and leaves both cars, and driveways, blocked by snow. Because of the condition of neighborhood roads, school officials have been making conscious decisions in keeping kids out of school for safety purposes. However, these snow days will take away from other vacation days for students. For Hicksville students, this past March 5 marked the fourth snow day for students, including two delayed openings in the past month alone.
For Town of Oyster Bay homeowners, the question of whose responsibility it is to clear snow from sidewalks on the side and behind homes just got a little easier to answer. Baron Law Firm, PLLC, based in East Northport, recently represented a homeowner in a case where a pedestrian was struck by a car while she walked on Old Country Road in Plainview in 2011. According to court papers, the pedestrian was forced to walk onto the Nassau County-owned roadway because snow and ice that had been plowed from the roadway by the county made the sidewalk impassable.
After the accident, the pedestrian sued the driver, as well as homeowners from three different residences, and Nassau County for the injuries she sustained. The county’s legal counsel argued that the county was not liable because the homeowners were ultimately responsible for clearing snow on the side and behind their homes. However, in reviewing the Town of Oyster Bay’s town code, Michael Newman an associate at Baron Law Firm, attorney for one of the homeowners, found that the County was trying to pull a fast one.
Oyster Bay Town Code explicitly states: Each owner and occupant of any house or other building…in the town shall keep the sidewalk in front of the lot or house free from obstruction by snow or ice and icy conditions.
“Because the code neglects to impose a duty on a homeowner to maintain the sidewalks on the side of or behind one’s home, the county owed the duty to maintain the subject sidewalk, not the homeowners,” said Newman, adding that Justice Denise Sher of the Nassau County Supreme Court ruled that the homeowners were not responsible for the pedestrian’s injuries as a matter of law. “Prior to this, it wasn’t necessarily clear who was responsible to clear the side and rear sidewalks of snow and ice. Now we know that in the Town of Oyster Bay, homeowners are only responsible for clearing snow and ice from the front of their homes.”
Newman said the Town of Oyster Bay would have to rewrite its code if they want to make homeowners responsible for clearing sidewalks on the side(s) and/or rear of their homes, but that same would likely create an unreasonable burden for homeowners, particularly those who live the middle of the block with a sidewalk running behind the rear of their lot.
“That result would be absurd,” said Jeff Baron, owner of Baron Law Firm, who found it ironic that Nassau County’s lawyers, who are essentially paid by its taxpaying homeowners, were trying to shift the burden of responsibility from the County to the individual homeowners. “It was stated in black and white that it is not the homeowners’ responsibility. And to make matters worse, it was the county’s own plowing methods that allegedly caused the sidewalk obstruction in the first place.”
“The county was wrongfully trying to push this burden off onto its homeowners,” said Baron. “They were attempting to abdicate their own legal responsibility to clear the sidewalks. The court found in our favor and it was, of course, no shock. Front means front.”
