Town of Niagara Highway Department making policy change ahead of winter

By Timothy Chipp

The weather outside may be warm and sunny, but the Town of Niagara Highway Department has one of its eyes on the future. The cold, blowing, snowy kind.

Its other eye is on its bank account.

Highway Superintendent Richard Sirianni said the department will no longer waive the fees it charges residents and business owners along Military Road for sidewalk snowblowing services it performs when the public walkways aren’t clear.

“We do it in emergencies,” Sirianni said, explaining the town’s decision to take care of sidewalks on Military Road. “We would waive our fees afterward. We did them twice last year, and twice our Bobcat broke.”

Sirianni said property owners are responsible for removing snow from pedestrian walkways, especially along Military Road and its commercial corridor.

In past years, the town would step in if the sidewalks weren’t cleaned. Residential property owners would be “charged” $25 per blowing, while commercial properties 100 feet of sidewalk or less would cost $50.

Commercial properties with more than 100 feet of sidewalk would be charged $60.

But, as Sirianni said, those fees would be waived in the past. That won’t be the case moving forward.

He said he’s hoping to send letters out to all property owners of Military Road by mid-October addressing those who will be affected by this change. They’ll be reminded of their responsibility and alerted to the change in policy.

“There are some who do a great job (clearing the sidewalks),” Sirianni said. “And there are some that just don’t.”

Blowing snow isn’t the only concern the town’s Highway Department has moving forward. They’re also concerned with overnight street parking through the winter months.

Currently, the town prohibits street parking on public roadways between 3 and 6 a.m. But Sirianni said Town Attorney Michael Risman is investigating a change that would extend the overnight ban to the hours between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to help the department clean the streets when it’s needed.

“The easiest solution is to ticket every night,” Sirianni said. “We’re waiting for (those) options. If we can’t come to a conclusion, we’ll have to resort to writing those tickets.”

In other Town of Niagara news, the Town Council approved a one-year moratorium on creating cryptocurrency mining operations, data processing centers and battery energy storage systems at its regular meeting Tuesday.

The decision followed a public hearing earlier in the meeting agenda where no one from the public spoke for or against the resolution.

Previously, the council proposed the moratorium after residents of the cities of North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls complained publicly about the noise from cryptocurrency mining facilities recently opened near residential neighborhoods.

Cryptocurrency mining, which has been described as using computer software and hardware to digitally mine for gold, requires massive power loads and a 24-hour, seven-day operation as miners look to process digital coin transactions, add them to a digital ledger called a “blockchain” and try to create new coins.

Those who do the work are often rewarded with cryptocurrency of their own, but it’s highly competitive as only the first miner to solve the equation earns the reward.

Town of Niagara officials built the option of a one-year extension into the moratorium, making it a maximum of two years.

The next regular meeting of the town council is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, at Town Hall, 7105 Lockport Road.