This post is a little late, but a few weeks ago we had a snow storm that turned into ice. We ended up with a good inch or more of ice on the ground. Unfortunately this meant that everything was covered in great sheets of ice. The first day after all the ice we went out and dug ourselves out and cleared the snow/ice off our cars. I managed to slip and fall once when I was first coming out of the building (note to self, don’t wear sneakers on icy days :-p). By late that afternoon the avalon people had been out and had cleared off all our sidewalks.
Avalon has generally been pretty good about taking care of clearing the sidewalks and having the road cleared soon after we get a bunch of snow. However after they cleared off all the snow/ice from our walk ways this time they didn’t seem to put any ice out. In their defense when they were done clearing they sidewalks they had done a good job that you didn’t need any ice at the time. What they had forgotten was that during the day for the next few days the snow/ice along the sides of the walk way would partially melt and the water would drain onto the sidewalks. When the sun set and the temperature dropped all that water would freeze and icy over making all the walkways a disaster area. This ice over was particularly a problem on the road around the complex. In fact one night that week I hit a huge patch of black ice and slid a good 10 feet and almost slid into a bunch of the parked cars. Thankfully i stopped in time and was able to get into a parking space. The first night I cut avalon some slack and figured they would be out the next day and put some salt down. They never did come out and put some salt out and this went on for a few days.
On thursday night Nicole had parked her car and was trying to walk into the building with her stuff and groceries and hit a large patch of ice and ended up wiping out pretty badly. Needless to say nicole wasn’t happy and neither was I. The next morning I called avalon and told them they needed to come out and put some salt down as the sidewalks were icy. I not so subtly told them that they should do this before someone gets seriously hurt as my wife had already fallen down the night before in their parking lot. Within an hour of leaving this message on their answering machine I got a call back from them wanting to check that no one was seriously hurt and asking if nicole was going to be seeking medical attention. They also had their guys out later that morning putting salt down on all the sidewalks and roads like they should have from the start of the week.
It’s good that they did all that so it was safe to walk about our apartment complex but I should never have had to call them or put up with slipping and sliding for more than a night. My guess is either the maintence guys were being lazy or more likely they were trying to save money by not putting salt down. In either case its sad that it took me hinting at them that it was a liability suite waiting to happen to get them to do the right thing and put some salt out.
