Marker rods protect grass from snow plows
The city may not like it, but people who use marker rods to keep sidewalk plows from gouging the grass around their homes say they work.
My Feb. 28 column was about the number of tall skinny rods pushed into the ground around the edges of sidewalks in my neighbourhood, and how the grass is pretty much unscathed where they’re used.
Turf damage from a plow is irritating, even though the grass belongs to the city. People who care for city property that borders their own understandably get upset when a plow peels up grass at the edges of the sidewalk.
Given the 14-day forecast, the worst of the snow is likely behind us. But if we get enough to need plowing, mild weather will make the grass soft and easily carved by plow blades.
A roads official told me marker rods “can be helpful” in keeping plows on course, but the city doesn’t like it when any unauthorized stuff is placed within the municipal road allowance.
That is of little concern to those residents who experienced less damage after they plugged them in along sidewalks photo of a rod with a reflector on top, saying that after years of road plows crossing over the angled curb and tearing the grass on his street, residents decided to give the markers a try.
“This year the group of neighbours around me put up reflectors,” he said. “Bite my tongue — no damage.”
Upwards of 200 comments were posted to my column by Sunday night on the Star’s Facebook page, including one from Joey DeCaire-Graham, who said that plows badly damaged the grass and sidewalk in front of her house last winter.
What was absent from any emails I got or Facebook comments is complaints about turf being damaged in spite of the markers. That says a lot about their usefulness.
What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email jlakey@thestar.ca or follow