DENVER — The city of Denver will not enforce its requirement for homeowners to shovel their sidewalks within a day of snow fall amid dangerously cold temperatures, a city spokesperson confirmed to Denver7.
Normally, city inspectors issue notices with 24-hour deadlines to homeowners who have not shoveled snow. Property owners can face fines of $150 if they fail to do so.
“Due to the dangerously low temperatures across the Front Range, city staff will not be completing inspections today, 12/21,” spokesperson Amanda Weston told Denver7. “Our recommendation, as always, is that people only shovel snow when it is safe to do so, and we expect that the right and safe time will be as temperatures rise later this weekend. We do not expect residents to shovel snow in sub-zero or unsafe temperatures.”
That news was a relief to Denver resident Kevin Delaney, who reached out to Denver7 with this question. Delaney, 68, said he was concerned for his health trying to shovel today but did not want to face fines from the city.
“You know, it’s not really good for me at my age to be out here, you know?” Delaney said. “I don’t have any young people in the house, you know. It’s just me and my wife.”
Delaney has lived in Colorado his whole life, but even he was blown away by how cold it go so quickly with this latest weather system. The National Weather Service confirmed that temperatures fell more than 37 degrees in just one hour Wednesday evening.
“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, it’s like this crazy cold,” Delaney recalled. “So I was like, ‘Oh my.’”
In the video above, watch Denver7’s Rob Harris and Dalton Ross inform Delaney of the city’s pause on shoveling enforcement, and then assist him by clearing his walks of snow.