Glencoe Board Proposes Snow Removal Compromise

The Glencoe Village Board of Trustees may have plowed past vocal residents' concerns that they continue to clear snow from their private streets free of charge at the August board meeting, but on Thursday night, the trustees decided in a compromise measure to continue to allow snow removal on private streets if residents pay a fee.

Trustee Larry Levin said he asked the ordinance to be drafted because with autumn
here and snow only two or three months away, residents on the private streets may
not have time to line up private contractors to plow the streets. The ordinance also
precludes the village from liability for any damage snow plows might cause on private property.

"I think when you decide to end a service that's been provided for 50 years, rightly or wrongly, it will be an issue to the community," Levin said.

The shortest street, South Lane, is only 70 yards long, while the longest Glade Road, is about 300 yards or 1/8 of a mile. The village had been plowing many of the 10 private streets as far back as the 1930s, but as the trustees looked for places to cut spending in a tight budget, providing public snow removal for private streets fell on the chopping block.

""It's very hard to maintain the level of service when you're starving to death,
financially," Trustee Bruce Cowans added.

In order for any of the 10 streets to receive snow removal on a fee basis from the
village, a majority of the residents on that street would have to be willing to sign onto the service. The rates were set at $43 for a half hour of snow removal and $17 for each application of road salt.

But Levin's measure didn't appease the livid homeowners who are losing the free
service on their private streets. Several said they would refuse to sign the agreements, and at least one hinted at legal action.

"I don't believe this matter is going to go away," said Bob Horwitch, an attorney who lives on Old Elm Place.

"The city is broke, we all know that," said Shelly Mann, who lives on a private street
called Maple Hill. "You have chosen to focus in on one aspect of the city in order to
balance that."

Private streets are not built to village standards, and many are narrow. A house not
serviced directly by a public roadway would have that reflected in its property tax
assessment.

"Private streets are up and down the North Shore, and only Glencoe provides this
service," said Cowans.

Cowans and other trustees reminded the audience in the heated discussion that the
fee-based snow removal was being offered as a courtesy accommodation. Residents
did not have to take it if they prefered to go with private snow plows.

"I have nothing to sell here. I don't want to be in business," Cowans said.