Even churches forced to pay shoveling fines

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- In Boston, where things are getting extremely tight and tense, the mayor's office is strictly enforcing shoveling fines.

If you don't shovel your sidewalk, it's $50 per day. If you shovel your snow into the street, it's $200 per day. Businesses beware, too. The city is writing $200 tickets to business owners who don't clear their sidewalks.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says he has received 100,000 complaints about walks that were not shoveled, and so far the city has issued 3,800 tickets. He tells FOX25 Political Reporter Sharman Sacchetti that even his own city agencies, like public works, have received tickets.

Even a church was even ticketed. Georgia Demitri, who is the church's treasurer, was outraged that the City of Boston had ticketed her place of worship on D Street in South Boston for failing to clear the walkways.

"I'm really upset with it, I don't really think they should go after a church. If they need $50, gee, I'll give it to them," she said.

She says they try to clear the snow on the weekends during services, and that the people they hired to clear this winter just moved away. They are doing the best they can, she said.

When Sacchetti asked Demitri what she'd like to say to the mayor, she said, "I think he should get the City of Boston to get these streets cleaned before he wastes time giving me a ticket. I'm really upset about it."

Sacchetti asked Sgt. Emanuel Dorosario of Code Enforcement to explain what's acceptable, and what's a violation. He said the sidewalk must be shoveled to 42-inches, but if he sees there has been an effort to clear responsibly, then they're being reasonable given all the snow.

What if you can't find a place to put it? Sacchetti found neighbors on Silver Street in South Boston struggling.

"Well, no one has a place to put it. But you have to find somewhere unfortunately. You have to remember people need a place to walk," Dorosario said.

We asked the mayor if the city is being too aggressive, ticketing churches and all. He told Sacchetti that the city is even ticketing its own departments.

"All I can say is, we will sit down and talk about individual tickets if they want to appeal them but we're asking everyone to clean the streets," Walsh said.

And what does that mean, the city is actually ticketing itself? When asked, Walsh said it was essentially moving city money around.

Cox Media Group