Q: "Why Won't the Town Help Seniors?"

A Patch reader asked, “Why isn't the Town of Orange willing to help Seniors and the Disabled to get snow off their roofs. We can not afford what people are charging. We need help.”

We checked for answers and this is what we came up with.

The town Community Services Department has been getting calls from residents seeking help with clearing their roof tops.

The town can send the highway department workers out to clear the end of a driveway where they may have blocked someone in when they plowed, or throw some sand down to provide traction, but it doesn’t have the liability insurance to cover anyone ascending onto a roof to shovel snow for private citizens.

Homeowners insurance also most likely would not cover them if a worker fell off the roof and was injured or worse.

Professional contractors who are offering their services are expensive — upwards of $500, but they are licensed and their insurance is expensive.

Also, in this kind of weather, ice dams in a roof could cause leaking and a homeowner might claim that the work the town did resulted in the damage (liability issue).

The Fire Department is all volunteer, and its members have been busy enough running to calls every day and clearing fire hydrants that residents ignored, so that they can gain access to them in the event of an emergency. So, to ask them to perform a neighborly courtesy of clearing rooftops for certain residents would also open a big can of liability issues if he or she was injured.

The Highway Department workers are overtaxed as well and are currently working on clearing snow from flat roof surfaces on town buildings along with their regular duties.

The town cannot afford to hire private contractors to take care of private residents.

So, in short, the town simply can’t help because of the liability. So residents will either have to find a friend or neighbor wit a roof rake who is willing to lend a hand or hire a licensed contractor.