Ninja skills no match for some sidewalks

Venturing out onto the sidewalk this time of year can be an icy journey more reminiscent of a Maligne Canyon ice walk than a jaunt down a city street.

Given that in the past week or so Jasper has had warm, cold, snowy and rainy weather, it’s not surprising that the sidewalks can quickly change from safe to slippery. According to Doug Rodwell, chief enforcement manager for the municipality, “a hazardous condition must be immediately rectified” and ice is certainly a hazard.

For bylaw officers, “if a complaint is received or if the guys are out driving and they see something that looks dangerous,” said Rodwell, “then they’ll identify the resident and drop a notice off in the resident’s door that says basically ‘you need to clean this up and deal with this and if you don’t, we’re going to charge you 300 bucks to do so’.”

Rodwell doesn’t consider the winter we’ve had so far to be average given that in a average year they will issue 60 to 70 notices and this year they’ve only issued 30, and “we’ve only had to force clean one property,” he said.

Understanding that the weather can change rapidly, Rodwell has even spread salt on walkways, “just because at the end of the day, public safety is number one and... we try to solve a situation,” he said.

More than for any other residents, winter is a difficult season for the elderly members of our society. Someone young and strapping will likely recover from a slip and fall on an icy sidewalk, but recovery can be more painful, difficult and lengthy for Jasper’s octogenarians.

“We don’t want to make them prisoners,” said Rodwell, “they just have to be careful.” Residents of the Alpine Summit Seniors Home “are told in regular resident meetings what the status is outside,” said manager Caroline LaVictoire and “what conditions the sidewalks are in, especially when we have those regular melts,” she said. Additionally, Alpine Summit provides cleats to residents who want them when venturing outdoors.

Even though people have to exercise “due diligence when they’re walking,” said Rodwell, if you do see an elderly person struggling on ice, it’s always nice just to offer a helping hand.