KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Jorgen Noah found himself outside a lot this past weekend.
“This has been probably my fourth time,” said Noah, who lives in Grand Rapids.
Like others across West Michigan, Noah braved the elements on numerous occasions this weekend to clean the snow from his driveway and sidewalk.
“The first couple [of times] were not so bad but this morning, it was quite surprising how much we actually did get overnight,” said Noah. “It’s been accumulating.”
It may be a hassle; however, Jorgen finds himself grateful that his family does not face any bigger issues related to snow removal, specifically property damage caused by plows.
“It does happen,” said Jerry Byrne, managing director of the Kent County Road Commission (KCRC).
Byrne admits every winter, his drivers, and those who work for other area departments, unintentionally hit things like mailboxes and cars or rip up grass as they try to clean the streets. Upwards of 400 homeowners file claims with KCRC each year to get the damage repaired but he estimates that happens in just roughly 25 percent of cases. It’s because the agency only steps in when it can definitively prove a KCRC truck, not the elements, caused the incident.
“If we struck your mailbox with the plow, or the vehicle, we're going to fix,” said Byrne. “If the weight of the snow did it, that's your responsibility to fix it.”
He added, “[If we hit a mailbox], we can see green paint, we can see paint where we physically struck it. A lot of times [too] you can see that the snow is two feet away from the mailbox so we weren't even close enough to the mailbox to strike it with our vehicle.”
It’s a similar policy for other road commissions in West Michigan, including the city of Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Ottawa, Van Buren and Newaygo counties.
People can often submit a claim online but Byrne encourages them to take steps that can be done before any bigger issues arise, including:
- Parking their cars in the driveway
- Using poles to mark property lines
- Installing sturdy, metal mailboxes
Noah agrees.
“Just stay safe,” said Noah.
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