Schaumburg won't add sidewalks to snow removal duties

Schaumburg officials have rejected an idea to include a smattering of sidewalks near elementary schools to their snow removal responsibilities.

"We thought we'd be setting inappropriate expectations and not get the payback we were hoping for," said Trustee Marge Connelly, chairmwoman of the village's Engineering and Public Works Committee.

The idea was to remove snow from sidewalks near 11 Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 schools totalling less than a half-mile.

The proposal did not come from the schools but followed complaints from various residents last winter and comments made at the monthly Coffee with the Council sessions.

The complaints prompted elected officials and staff to wonder if there was something more that could be done to improve services, Connelly said. The walkways in question were not on school property but on immediately adjacent residential property.

But after a hard look at the facts, officials decided the idea was impractical.

"It would be so piecemeal and so low on the priority list that the students would have walked there already and crunched the snow down," Connelly said. "Last year was a bad situation. What was different was that we kept having small snow after small snow after small snow and then ice after snow."

There are already sections of sidewalk from which the village does remove snow. These include in front of Schaumburg High School on Schaumburg Road, where Cook County's plowing efforts usually deposit snow, Connelly said.

Technically, it is the responsbility of homeowners to shovel the walks in front of their property. But realistically, not every homeowner shovels by the time students walk to school, if at all.

But while the village hasn't officially added these sections of neighborhood sidewalk to its snow removal duties, crews will carefully monitor each snowfall situation and help where they can, she added.