Kirsten Larsen
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 10/99) - The sun is shining and the wind is mild. The snow has stopped falling and has formed a compacted path on the downtown sidewalks.

Being a pedestrian would be ideal in this situation, except for one thing -- eventually that compacted path will become a treacherous, lumpy mass.

As the weather warms, pedestrians will notice that the individuals normally seen chipping away at the frozen, snow-crusted sidewalks are scarce. Some sidewalks will not be cleared until the next snowfall, if the warmer weather persists. There is a reason behind this pattern.

Although some larger businesses and entrepreneurs who own several businesses in town either hire a company with equipment to clear the snow or use their maintenance staff, the majority of businesses in town hire individuals who work according to their own schedules.

Sidewalk cleaners in Yellowknife are mostly individuals who offer to clean the sidewalks not just when they feel like it, but when the snow is just right.

"After it stops snowing, I give it a while after people walk on it," said an individual who spoke to Yellowknifer while he was at the Salvation Army. "Packed snow is the best. You need a scraper to get right down to the sidewalk. When it's packed you can just chip it off."

If businesses don't have the time or the staff to clean the sidewalks themselves, they pretty much just have to wait for these individuals to come around.

"They come in and ask now and then if we need it done," said Donna Williston, owner of Subway. "It's not necessarily the same people all the time.

"They are generally ones that stay at the Salvation Army. There are others from the (Yellowknife Correctional Centre) that do it as part of their community service hours."

The street cleaners say the condition of the snow is what determines when they go to work.

An individual who spoke to Yellowknifer on the telephone from the Salvation Army wished not to give his name, but said that warm weather is not ideal when cleaning sidewalks.

"I won't work when it's warmer like this," he said. "It (the snow) gets too heavy and it's sticky. We prefer to do it when it's cold."

"When in a group it keeps the spirit up," he said. "We keep happy and joke and get done faster."

The only drawback to working in a group is the pay has to be split. For most jobs the going rate is $10 for a storefront, unless the property is larger than average.

"It's $30 for the sidewalk around the liquor store, but that's a whole corner on both sides," said a street cleaner. "That takes a day to do."