Within 24 hours of a snowstorm, the city of Plattsburgh requires its residents to remove snow from their property. Some Plattsburgh State students who live off of campus don’t have to worry because their landlords follow up on their lease agreements, which hold the landlords responsible for lawn maintenance and snow removal, but others aren’t so lucky.
“There’s about three inches of uneven snow, so you can’t really walk on it,” PSUC English literature major Alisha Zeni said about her current situation. “You have to slowly put one foot in front of the other just to walk down my walkway.”
Zeni said her landlord has had someone plow her driveway, but it wasn’t effective enough to clear all of the snow out of the area.
“He had someone plow maybe two times this winter, and I’ve never seen someone actually shovel our walkway,” she said.
In regards to snow removal, PSUC English literature and communications major Katie Cantwell said, “I live in the College Suites, and snow removal is non-existent.”
Cantwell explained what it was like at the College Suites during last semester’s finals week snowstorm.
“It took me an hour to dig out my car, and I needed four people to push it out of the snow,” Cantwell said.
“When it’s a problem, no one’s there,” PSUC hotel and restaurant management major Katie Tangel said. Tangel’s boyfriend lives off-campus, and Tangel said his driveway has been covered in a sheet of ice for two or three months now.
“I’ve slipped multiple times,” she said. “If your car’s bad in the snow, getting out of the driveway is nearly impossible.”
However, not everyone has a problem with snow removal. PSUC nursing major Morgan Fisher and PSUC criminal justice major Kelsey Beach commended their landlord’s snow removal, saying that he has sent them a diagram explaining how to park during a storm, as well as emails notifying his tenants about storms.
“He’ll even email us and tell us how much snow is falling,” Beach said.
“In our contract it says we’re supposed to shovel, but he shovels and salts it, so that’s pretty awesome,” said Fisher, “but where I used to live it was complete ice. We would have to hook arms to walk to class.”
Beach said she felt the main issue was the sidewalks.
“The sidewalks are the real issue because it’s not safe to have everyone walking in the streets,” Beach said. “For a city, Plattsburgh does a pretty good job clearing the roads.”
Email Patrick Willisch at patrick.willisch@cardinalpointsonline.com
