Chisinau residents and companies must clear pavements of snow and ice

The residents of Chisinau as well as the companies are obliged to clear the pavements of snow and ice in front of the buildings in which they live or work, says a decision made by the Chisinau Municipal Council on December 5, 2000. The decision provides for fines for the persons and economic entities that do not comply. Despite such a decision, the roadsides in Chisinau changed into real skating rings after the pedestrians treaded the snow that fell heavily during the last days. All the individuals, legal and economic entities, institutions, commercial organizations, associations of tenants and landlords, owners of different real estate must clear the pavements of snow. The residents and economic entities cleared some of the pavements inside the quarters, but threw the snow onto the streets, rendering the work of the snow removing teams useless. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, Alexei Varlan, deputy head of the Public Transport and Communication Ways Division, said that the given decision bans the throwing of snow onto the roadway, while those that do so are liable to fines of 180 lei. This fine can be applied only by police officers, including of the Traffic Police, the cited source said. A relevant example is the road section in front of a restaurant located on Bernardazzi Street. The restaurant’s employees cleaned the sidewalk, but blocked the street instead. According to Varlan, during the last three days, the Division’s personnel and machinery worked almost round the clock to remove the snow from the roads so as to make the movement possible. About 600 lei was spent on clearing a square metre of roadway. The antiskid material for 1,000 square metres of street costs 85 lei. Additional expenses included the transportation and storing of the antiskid material, the salaries of workers and drivers. Over 1,600 cubic meters of antiskid material was spread onto streets during three days in order to avoid the formation of glazed frost. The streets were clean until the people began to throw the snow from the pavements, Varlan said. The cited source stressed the necessity of transporting the snow to special places. The Public Transport Division can load the snow onto applicants’ transport units for payment. One hour of work costs 198 lei. “The Division works to keep the traffic unblocked and we did out job.” For his part, Petru Gontea, deputy head of the Housing-Communal Division, told the Agency that it is not permitted to throw snow onto roadways. He accused the economic entities and inhabitants of different zones of artificially loading the streets with snow. They must clear the pavements and gutters in front of buildings they own or administer of snow and ice immediately and not create problems to the participants in the traffic. Gontea said that the police should work round the clock and apply large fines. He also said that the 200 employees of the Division store the snow at the corners of the road as the Division does not have possibility and sufficient resources to transport the snow. Contacted by the Agency, the head of Centru district Vladimir Sarban said that on the first working day after holidays, all the employees of the district’s office went to convince the economic entities to clear the sidewalks. Many residents are passive as they wait for other people to clean the pavements to their houses. Sarban says that the employees of the district’s office cannot apply fines in spite of the relevant City Hall’s decision. Usually, representatives of the local public administration warn the ones that do not clear the roadsides. If the situation does not change, the police can apply fines. Ion Roscovanu, inspector of the Road Safety and Administrative Supervision Division of the Chisinau Traffic Police, told Info-Prim Neo that he does not know cases when the people were fined for throwing snow onto the street. In Bucharest, tens of inspection teams of the City Hall work inside quarters from Friday to find the individuals and legal entities that did not clear the sidewalks of snow. The mayors announced the inspections will continue the next days so as the streets are cleared of snow and ice and the pedestrians move freely and safely.