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A Portland man's website targets property owners who don't shovel their sidewalks after storms.

By DIETER BRADBURY January 14, 2008

If you defy Portland’s snow removal ordinance by not shoveling the sidewalk in front of your home or business, try not to cross paths with Frank Turek.

The Munjoy Hill resident has become a kind of snow-removal watchdog. He has a Web site where anyone can post photos and report the location of sidewalks that haven’t been cleared.

Portlandsidewalks.org gives city inspectors an online catalog of shoveling scofflaws, who could be fined as much as $250. The ordinance requires that sidewalks be cleared within 24 hours after the city finishes its plowing in front of homes, and within 12 hours in front of businesses.

More than 125 addresses have been listed on the site, which was created in early December; and with Monday’s snowstorm, the number is likely to grow.

Turek said he plans to go all winter with his campaign for shoveling accountability, which some have called the “tattletale” system.

“It’s no fun being in that role. I don’t take pleasure in it, but I think the importance of the issue overrides that,” said Turek, who lives on Howard Street and refused to have his photo taken.

The snow removal ordinance seems to generate tension after every major snowfall in Portland. The issue has been especially acute this winter, thanks to a series of storms that dumped 38 inches on the city last month.

While pedestrians complain about safety and the inconvenience of unshoveled sidewalks, property owners counter that they often have no place to put snow – especially on the peninsula – or that they can’t handle the large piles deposited on sidewalks by city plows.

Last week, the City Council’s public safety committee learned that City Hall has received 365 complaints about uncleared walks, which have tied up phone lines and kept four inspectors busy.

After a discussion, the committee voted to urge the council not to enforce the ordinance off the peninsula, and to reduce the workload for inspectors by letting them focus on the peninsula, where most of the safety concerns lie.

City workers said they would continue to rely on complaints from residents to identify violators of the ordinance.

An inspector posts a warning notice when a sidewalk hasn’t been shoveled. If the snow isn’t cleaned up, the city will have the work done, bill the property owner and add an administrative fee.

Turek, 45, said he thinks the city is doing a better job of responding to complaints this year, but he said the unwritten policy of relying on residents’ complaints illustrates the need for an enterprise such as portlandsidewalks.org, which he launched with support from friends and neighbors.

“We wanted to be provocative about the whole situation and, by default, be what the parking cops are to parking violations,” he said.

Turek said that about 12 to 20 people have posted complaints and photos to his site, mostly of addresses on Munjoy Hill, with a few in Bayside and the West End.

After the New Year’s Day storm, about 35 to 40 addresses with unshoveled sidewalks were posted. One address was the home of Liane Kuniholm, on Montreal Street.

She said her family is diligent about shoveling the sidewalks on the property, on the corner of Montreal and Willis streets; but after an initial shoveling on New Year’s Day, the family went out of town for a few days.

Kuniholm said she thinks the city ordinance is fair, but the reality is that a shoveled sidewalk often gets icy and requires salting, which she doesn’t like.

“I support (the ordinance), but I just think people need to be a little more tolerant,” Kuniholm said. She said she was unaware of Turek’s Web site.

Another property owner on the New Year’s Day storm list, Keith Lane of Waterville Street, said he was also out of town and is normally attentive to his sidewalks.

“I delegated it to a tenant,” Lane said. “He just happens to work for a snow removal company, and I know they were really busy, so it just took him...