“When removing snow, it’s important to avoid walking on the snow before it’s been cleared. Doing so can compact the snow and make it harder to remove, creating a slippery surface that increases the risk of slip and fall accidents.“
Source: Insurance Information Institute, “Winter Safety: Tips for Preventing Slip and Fall Accidents” https://www.iii.org/article/winter-safety-tips-for-preventing-slip-and-fall-accidents
PURPOSE: Poudre Overlook HOA needs to learn from snow removal mistakes and improve practices as a matter of public safety and fiduciary duty to reduce the risk of injury and costs or litigation. The POHOA and PID#30 Boards need to follow their policies, which includes timely securing of contracts, and active management of the contractors, which now includes volunteers.
SUMMARY: POHOA wasn’t following its own snow removal policy from 2014-2021, and revised it’s current policy in October of 2021. Per the policy, POHOA and PID#30 share and coordinate duties for snow removal from the streets and common area sidewalks. They are supposed to revisit this each July to ensure we have a contractor, but instead of following the policy, our Treasurer unilaterally canceled the renewing contract in November. Because all other contractors were fully booked, that left us with few options, so the Board has decided to give gift cards to volunteers – a decision voted upon by the Board in January of 2023.
The Snow Removal Policy, however, was not amended, but the gift card program is a de facto new policy made without actual written notice as required by our policies on how to change policies. It is fair that the program was brought up at the Annual Meeting, but there wasn’t a vote by homeowners. So, because there are not published meeting minutes on the website, and POHOA Board has not officially communicated any of this in writing, it is likely few have any idea about these changes unless they are within the word-of-mouth network that shares such information.
ISSUES:
1) The POHOA and PID#30 Boards are not following their policies, and are revising them ad hoc without proper notice or documentation of the changes.
2) Some volunteers are crossing private sidewalks before snow is cleared creating compacted snow which can result in icy patches that increase risks for slip-and-fall injuries.
3) The street snow removal contractor is pushing snow onto both common area and private sidewalks since 2021.
RESOLUTION:
1) The POHOA Board needs to revise the Snow Removal Policy so that there are clear guidelines for Directors of POHOA and the PID#30 to follow, including if gift-cards to be handed out to volunteers, and whether or not those volunteers may request those funds to be given to charity;
2) Give specific written instructions to volunteers about snow removal practices that reduce the chances of personal injury (to themselves, as well as to those walking on surfaces after snow removal).
3) The street snow removal contractor needs clear instructions on when it may be appropriate to push snow onto and/or beyond common area sidewalks (such as at the end of the Tributary cul-de-sac), and when it is not (Bubbling Brook cul-de-sac). Attention to piling snow near fire hydrants, or leaving snow on already cleared sidewalks needs to be cleared before the contractor leaves the site, or they must return if given notice within 24 hours.
FACTS AND EVIDENCE SUPPORTING RESOLUTION
At 7:30am this morning, with the temperature at -3F, I looked out my window and saw someone was up early shoveling snow. There’s been an uptick lately in volunteerism on snow removal, with neighbors visibly out early after each snowfall. It’s pretty obvious many are helping out their neighbors too.
What was odd was that this wasn’t our neighbors. Someone walked from completely outside of our 5-home cul-de-sac to access this little strip of sidewalk. In the process, instead of putting their shovel down and pushing the snow away on their way there, they created compacted snow/ice in their footprints for the entire block. It was barely an inch of snow, but these little footprints are a hidden risk of slip-and-fall injuries, particularly if they ice over and more snow falls later.
The POHOA Board and PID#30 changed our Snow Removal Policy in October of 2021. Part of this was upon recognition that the prior policy dating to 2014 wasn’t being followed, and Trademark Property Management attempted to justify the March 2021 situation by saying that section of sidewalk wasn’t the responsibility of the HOA at all. Our manager hadn’t read the older policy before responding to my concern about the street plow guys making a giant pile on the sidewalk – she originally said it wasn’t the HOA’s responsibility, but after reviewing the policy realized it actually wasn’t appropriate to brush off the volunteer homeowner who had actually done the HOA’s work. It wasn’t until I showed her this section of the HOA Snow Removal Policy that she changed her mind:
In the current POHOA policy, which removed the section about having sole financial responsibility, Paragraph 5 says that POHOA and PID#30 will review the procedure for any necessary changes each July. And, instead of being in an absolute position of paying for the removal services, the new policy allows the board to try but say it was too hard and excuse themselves while patting themselves on the back for doing thankless work.
But, as a member of the POHOA Board who was aware of this requirement in 2022, I was unable to get President/Secretary Ballweber to either put the subject on the Agenda or allow it to be raised as a matter of New Business for the 8/1, 8/15, 9/2, or 9/13 meetings. In short, I was told that Treasurer Clay Jones handled all vendor contracts, period. This isn’t exactly how our policy reads, and is an example of the dictatorial powers some Directors use to simply do as they please.
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Open in new tab At the POHOA Annual “Homeowners” Meeting on 12/14/22, Director and Treasurer, Clay Jones, announced that he had unilaterally canceled the contract with our snow removal contractor citing vague reasons about why the contract was unacceptable. Follow-up with that contractor demonstrated it wasn’t exactly as Director Jones described, but the point was moot. This is why a “I’ll try” policy is ineffective and leads to not just excuses, but substitute policies that aren’t actually a community decision.
As a result of the late decision and lack of preparation earlier in the year, Director Jones also claimed that no contractors were available – which is why the Board is supposed to visit this issue IN JULY to follow the policy! Since that meeting, I’ve found ones that are looking for work and sent the contact info to the Board but have not received a response.
The solution proposed by Director Jones was to create a Gift Card program. In theory it is simple: Volunteers who remove snow from the Common Area Sidewalks are rewarded with Gift Cards that are proportional to the effort. Who could argue against that?
Well, anyone with knowledge of how HOA funds go missing knows that having a volunteer HOA Board turning funds into untraceable gift cards is ripe for mistakes and abuse, which can then lead to disputes and even litigation if substantial enough. It is always justified by those who say “Who would do such a thing? Certainly not me or us.” And, “gift cards” to a retailer are not free. Depending on how they are purchased, the actual amount spent is greater than the amount received by the do-gooder.
But, the Board passed the program with a vote on 1/10/23, in spite of concerns that turning volunteers into workers who are paid off the books in such a manner may undermine insurance coverage. Director Jones wife, who was the prior President and who signed the new American Family Insurance policy that expanded coverage for volunteers said this type of volunteer work was covered, even if they were paid with gift cards, which by common definition means they are no longer volunteers. That assurance by Gloria won the day, and the Board breezed by it with a vote without anyone ever actually looking up the actual wording in the insurance policy, or even suggesting a call to the agent might be a good idea.
On January 18 we had some snow to shovel. I did as I always had, and hand-shoveled the snow at the end of Bubbling Brook Court common area sidewalk. There weren’t clear instructions given at the meeting about how to get the gift cards, so I wrote to the POHOA Board at the new email address (atftcpoudreoverlook@gmail.com) with photos of the work, and asked that the gift card be sent to The Fort Collins Rescue Mission, which is in Old Town Fort Collins. They take donations to help feed and shelter those who are unhoused and need temporary shelter.
To my surprise, Director Ballweber wrote back telling me to donate to the Fort Collins Rescue Mission myself because the Board didn’t authorize giving to charities!
I was quite surprised by the response, and since that time, no gift cards have been disbursed to either myself or The Fort Collins Rescue Mission. I mentioned to them in a follow-up that the Rescue Mission has website where you could donate directly, which wouldn’t result in loss of funds to fees like the gift program does, but got a similarly terse response.
But, in conjunction with being denied the ability to have a gift card sent to a charity, the street snow removal contractor struck again, and pushed a small amount of snow back onto the sidewalks on January 19th, again, the day after that storm.
I emailed to the POHOA Board and PID#30 Board with photos, reminding them of what had occurred in 2021, and to perhaps contact the contractor again. Mr. Hammond, one of the PID#30 Board Members wrote back saying he had personally removed snow himself earlier that morning, and gone around the entire neighborhood to ensure that no snow was on the sidewalks.
I sent the photos of the remaining snow to Mr. Hammond about 30 minutes after his response, but never received a response back. I waited a few days, and on January 22, found that there was still thick snow and ice that had now melted and refrozen for 3-4 days in row crossing the entire sidewalk on one section of Bubbling Brook. I felt my concern was ignored.
It has finally been warm enough to melt the snow and ice to allow me to break it free from bonding to the concrete. So, I removed it, but it took several minutes of chopping and scraping.
TODAY’S SNOW REMOVAL
So, this morning, when I saw the small section of common area sidewalk cleared, but that they had compacted snow in front of our house, I thought it was strange. Having not only been born and raised in Chicago, where slip and fall sidewalk injuries are common, and having actually worked part-time in snow removal while living in Telluride, CO in the 1990s, I recognized that whomever had done this work wasn’t aware of undoing the virtue by creating additional hazard. It was odd to me that, particularly with barely an inch of snow, if you were going to bypass all the sidewalks in front of the home to go down and do this small stretch, why not walk in the street and not create the compacted icy-patches?
I went out at 8:00 am to remove the snow from our sidewalk and found that it had already bonded after just 30 minutes – because it was only 3F still. You have to turn the shovel over to scrape these compacted footprints from the sidewalk, which is arguably more work than pushing it aside first.
Yes, it might melt later in the day, but that’s a problem of it’s own, because if it actually gets wet on a day with a predicted high of 11 degrees, as soon as the sun goes down (or behind clouds), that wet spot becomes a super-slick spot that is sometimes clear and invisible. That is exactly the type of unexpected hazard that fools people who think they are safe walking on a cleared sidewalk into lowering their guard and taking a fall that results in broken bones or head/brain injuries.
Yes, I’m aware this might be considered petty, super-picky, or even Karenish. But, perhaps there’s heighten sensitivity with one of our neighbors having had this exact slip-and-fall injury that resulted in a brain injury earlier in the month over in the next subdivision. It wasn’t on a day when there was a blizzard, but rather on a day after snow had been cleared. This is an actual acute danger and risk, and if we aren’t going to have professional contractors do the work, at least the volunteers, some of whom may not have grown up in climates where ice formation on sidewalks was common, may not have this “common sense”. We should have written instructions that inform people that simply aren’t aware that their good deed actually created risks.
Since nobody but the snow remover had been outside yet in the morning, I cleared our sidewalks and scraped off the compressed snow in front of our house. I then continued down the sidewalk to see where the footprints led, removing the snow from my neighbor’s sidewalks as I went along. Not for gift cards, but because it just makes sense. I mean, as long as I’m going in that direction and I have a shovel in my hand, pushing less than an inch of snow only makes sense. Adding new compression spots with my own footprints does not.
I suspected Mr. Hammond, who had said on January 19th that he was the volunteer who came into our cul-de-sac to remove snow previously (but missed that the contractor had pushed it onto the sidewalk) may have done the same. So, I followed the footprints down Bubbling Brook, and yes, they turned the corner where they crossed the street and followed right back to Mr. Hammond’s side of Headwater Drive.
EDIT: Shortly after publishing this article, Mr. Hammond responded denying he himself did the snow removal as said he did on January 19th. I cannot explain, then, why the footprints coming from his home where the snow was cleared lead down the street and around the corner.
As I was then clearing the rest of the sidewalk on the South side of Headwater, connecting to Mr. Hammond’s work that stopped at the end of the common-area sidewalk, I noticed as I was coming back that someone was down at the far North end of Bubbling Brook removing the snow from that common area sidewalk. I couldn’t tell if it was Mr. Hammond or another volunteer, but the sidewalk all the way down the street had the same footprints, again compacting the snow from Headwater down to the entrance to the Stagecoach Subdivision.
CONCLUSION
It’s a good thing we have a bunch of people out in the mornings removing snow from their sidewalks, and who are willing to help others and even volunteer to clear the sidewalks of the common areas. We bought homes, however, in an HOA that by contract said the common area sidewalk snow removal was their financial responsibility, and now they have, through a series of policy changes that were made without full notice and deliberation that was inclusive of the community, pushed the work back onto the homeowners.
In the process, we’ve regressed and now have people out early in the morning to create extra work for homeowners who have to remove snow and ice that has bonded with the sidewalks by volunteers who have no instructions, and by contractors who carelessly undo the work of homeowners and volunteers 1-2 days after each storm. The only insanity here is doing this over and over expecting a different result.
This is how small matters often escalate into larger disputes. There’s been a definitive problem with our snow removal contractors for years and years. We seem to either have terrible luck, because neighboring subdivisions do not experience the same problems, or we are poor at following and acting upon our policies. And, when called out on not following our policies, we replace them with policies that allow those in charge to have excuses for poor performance leading to enhanced risks for homeowners and neighbors in adjacent subdivisions who use the sidewalks daily for exercise for themselves and their pets.
We know the risks are real, as we have someone in our community who just had an accident with a brain injury resulting from these circumstances. This is not an imaginary issue, and the impact to our neighbor is serious. We shouldn’t shirk our policies and responsibilities and put them in the hands of volunteers who receive no written instructions or warnings about hazards they may be creating even with their best intentions. And, that goes equally for paid contractors who are regularly covering our sidewalks with snow after we’ve already cleared them, and not cleaning up after ourselves.
I’m not asking for punishment or consequences, I’m simply asking that we admit this isn’t OK, recognize that the problems have solutions, learn from our mistakes, AND IMPROVE. We don’t have to be perfect, but this isn’t a new problem, and we seem to be repeating the problems or even making them worse.
Leaving these choices to the discretion of our current POHOA and PID#30 Boards isn’t working. We need policies that tell them exactly what to do so we have a consistent experience going forward. I advocate for the POHOA Board to put this on the agenda, give notice about a Special Meeting to change the Snow Removal Policy, and to have an inclusive committee formed to figure out the best path forward from here who then makes recommendations to the POHOA Board.
I cannot say for certain whether the actions this morning where volunteers seem to be trying to get the common area sidewalks done before anyone leaves their house is some attempt to prevent homeowners who live closer from having their gift-cards donated to charity, but it sure seems strange to me the sequence of events where the Board denies a pretty simple request on the basis of “The BOARD decides!”, and then this happens. This is why I think whether volunteers wish to have their gift-cards donated, or whether they can let them accumulate for the season for a singular donation at a later date should be put on that agenda for changing our Snow Removal policy. It’s the right way to do this if the Board can’t simply donate them as a matter of discretion.
Maybe this is a snow job where the real motives are concealed, and maybe it is all innocent explanations. But we need to move beyond this and deal with a perennial problem that hasn’t been fully resolved for several years.