Tomlinson's Winter Cash Cow

This week's Almaguin News ran an article on Kearney's new by-law that requires citizens to clear the sidewalk adjacent to their properties. Like the roads, sidewalks are municipal property, but no one expects residents to clear the roads in front of their properties. But Mayor Paul Tomlinson is already counting the bucks that By-law Enforcement Officer (and sometimes CBO) Henry Hess will be able to pull in when Townies are away and can't shovel the snow off municipal property.

And as usual, Tomlinson doesn't care that in 2000 the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that sidewalk clearing is the municipality's job regardless of by-laws or fines:

“snow and ice accumulating on public sidewalks . . . are the legal responsibility of the municipality, not the property owner.”

Councillor Barry Dingwall - who doesn't live in Kearney and probably won't be seen much after he closes his cottage -  whines:

“It originally came to us based on some concern by the senior citizens’ club and that’s why we took some action on it and put a bylaw in place. But since that time many of the people who were supposed to be people who were demanding this have come forward and said they would prefer that this bylaw didn’t exist.”

Kearney Dogsled Races 2012

Well duh, Barry. The by-law discriminates against the elderly (and disabled) who would be forced to hire someone to chop ice and shovel snow from their share of the sidewalk, or struggle to do it themselves if their fixed-incomes can't bear the cost. The elderly who asked the Town to keep the sidewalks cleared didn't expect the Town to pass a by-law making them do it! All because (according to Tomlinson) the big, burly men at the Public Works Department can't figure out how to shovel around a lamp post.

Not that the Proudfoot Four or their Fat-Cat buddies care one way or the other. Tomlinson and Wadsworth need every cent they can shake out of Kearney and its citizens to get that 9.5% for the ruling-class in Proudfoot; Everything else is our tough luck.

Mayor Tomlinson caps off his interview with the Almaguin News by saying that a new sidewalk plow would cost about $100,000. Sure, if you're planning to plow the sidewalks with a Ferrari. The truth of the matter is that a used machine can be purchased from a reputable dealer for a fraction of that (around 10 to 15 thousand), which would be fine given that Kearney has a relatively short run of sidewalk.

But with Mayor Tomlinson it's never about solutions. It's always about why it can't be done: There's a stupid lamp post in the way, stupid snow shovels cost millions of dollars, I'm just one voice. Or who's to blame: The stupid previous council put the lamp post in the wrong place, the stupid seniors won't shovel the town's sidewalks, the stupid taxpayers don't want to pay taxes, I'm just one voice.

Are you surprised?

Footnote: It's since been confirmed with the original engineering firm that the lampposts are exactly where they were supposed to placed per the plans. Nice try, Paul.