'Dangerous' snowbank complaint sees cops respond

As he was returning home last Friday night with his children, Coniston resident Greg Rheaume was alarmed to see two police cruisers outside his home waiting for him.

But he was even more bewildered when he found out why they were there: a neighbour had made a bylaw complaint less than an hour earlier about the height of his snowbanks.

As it turns out, Rheaume wasn't in violation of the bylaw, but he's questioning not only why Greater Sudbury Police would respond so quickly to an alleged bylaw infraction, but why they would respond at all.

“They were all serious, as though something drastic had occurred, like I had committed a crime and they were going to be arresting me," he said. "They said, 'we received a complaint this evening regarding your snowbanks in the front.' I said, 'you're kidding me, right?'"

Rheaume told them that in a truck, the banks were well below the sight line, and in a car, it might be at the sight line, but certainly not to the point where it constituted a hazard.

"I told them, you can easily see up and down the street," he said. "I said, this is Friday evening. The fact you guys are even dealing with this complaint is ludicrous. Why isn't a bylaw (control officer) here?

"They told me they can enforce bylaws. I said I get that, but this is a bylaw issue. It's Friday evening, people are out drinking, there's potential DUIs, etc., and you're here to tell me about a snowbank that has been here for four weeks?"

To make matters worse, Rheaume said the bank was created by city snowplows several weeks ago when crews were clearing snowbanks, dumping snow into people's properties in the process.

"They covered everybody's driveways,” he said. “There must have been a bunch of complaints, because the city dispatched a backhoe and a dump truck to clear people's driveways."

Rheaume speculates the reason cruisers were dispatched is because his neighbour works for the city. Officers told him that the got the complaint around 9:30 p.m. and they showed up at 10:15 p.m. He's complained to Greater Sudbury and asked they conduct an investigation into the incident.

"I'm dumbfounded," he said. "I just thought the whole thing was outrageous — they sent not one police officer, but two, to deal with a frivolous four-foot snowbank ... I just thought it was a complete waste of resources, a waste of tax dollars."

The bylaw in question is Bylaw 2011-219, which regulates issues around “the fouling, obstruction, use and care of roads.” Section 8 (4a) states that no one can create snowbanks that “interferes with the sight lines of vehicles entering the roadway from a private driveway or intersection.”

If found guilty of breaking the bylaw, residents can be fined, and if they refuse to fix the problem, they would be responsible for the costs the city incurs in removing the snow. It also says that residents can receive official notification that they broke the bylaw by a mailed notice, or in person through a visit from a bylaw control officer during regular business hours.

Rheaume said the Feb. 27 visit from police was the first time he heard anyone had an issue with his snowbanks, even though they had been at the same height for weeks.

"The first time I heard about it was when the police showed up," he said. “The snowbanks are still there, of course, and they won't be going anywhere until they melt.

"I thought, the public has to know about this. This is craziness ... The whole thing is absurd."

Greater Sudbury Police spokesperson Const. Bert Lapalme confirmed Tuesday police had responded to a complaint about Rheaume's snowbanks.

He said police will sometimes respond to bylaw complaints when safety issues are involved, if the problem is reported after hours when the city's bylaw department is closed.

For example, he said noise complaints normally come in at night when police are the only ones available to respond.

"We have received complaints in the past about, because of the way people shovelled their driveway, it brought the (snowbank) to a dangerous height, where people coming out of their driveway, it obscured their view of traffic," Lapalme said. "We have attended those calls in the past. If it's an issue with traffic safety, it can become a police matter."

Normally when they get bylaw complaints, they tell people to contact the bylaw department during office hours, unless there's a safety issue involved, and if officers are available to handle the call.

"We can act on a bylaw ... (and) if officers are available to attend, we can certainly take those types of calls," he said. "I can confirm that police were contacted to attend a location in Coniston on the 27th, and the matter was resolved."

Because of privacy issues, he couldn't comment on who made the complaint, but he stressed safety issues are the determining factor, not who made the complaint.

"Police cleared the matter, and the matter was closed," he added.