Senator Mike Doherty (R-23) has introduced legislation that blocks municipal ordinances from preventing the ability of kids to offer snow shoveling services within 24 hours of an expected snowstorm.
The legislation was drafted in response to recent reports of a pair of high school seniors who were stopped by Bound Brook police and told they could not go door to door without a permit to hand out flyers in an attempt to solicit snow shoveling business for a snowstorm the next morning.
“That teenagers looking to make a few bucks shoveling driveways can be at risk of breaking the law is a sign of how overbearing government has become,” said Doherty. “Instead of learning the value of entrepreneurship and hard work, today’s kids are being taught that the effort isn’t worth it.”
Doherty’s legislation states that “no ordinance regulating solicitation for services shall be applicable to solicitations, whether written or oral, for snow shoveling services made within 24 hours of a snowstorm that has been predicted by a commonly recognized commercial or governmental weather reporting entity.”
Doherty noted that all manner of childhood activities that once served as children’s first exposure to entrepreneurship are under attack.
“I guess snow shoveling has joined lemonade stands as the new target of bureaucrats in the war against teaching kids the value of work,” said Doherty. “We shouldn’t let government criminalize harmless childhood activities that were once rights of passage for tens of millions of American kids.”
[TLS]
Why the 24 hour limit? Should be legal any time!
And why only storms that have been predicted??? At that rate there may not be any applicable snow to shovel.
The supreme court already ruled that solicitation is legal unless there is a no solicitation sign outside the home or business. actually in the case of the kids shoveling snow the cop backed off and let the kids continue because he learned this so any ordnance is already void because the supreme court supersedes them
Maybe Lakewood should enforce the law and fine those that don’t shovel after a snow. Look at what happened to a girl walking to school in Conn. She had to go on the road, got hit by a car and had a broken hip. Look at sidewalks in neighborhoods after a snow, big or small most never clear snow. You have 24 hours but if you do it early it is much easier. Don’t have to deal with refreezing.
It’s a good law & I’m happy to see that at least someone in the legislature still has some working brain cells. That being said the extra language put in to limit it to snow storms in certain circumstances is not good. It should apply to all snow shoveling period.
And to old Lakewood who wants everyone to shovel their sidewalk I have 1 simple question. Who owns the sidewalk?? If it’s public property then the municipality should be responsible to clear the snow. If it’s private property then the government shouldn’t be telling us what to do with our own property. If you have anything to say more than “it’s the law” I’m interested in what you have to say otherwise I don’t need your comments about keeping the law because it doesn’t make any sense
Hey anon, The sidewalk in front of your house is your property, with either a town, county, or government easment. This means you are required to maintain this property but people can still walk on the sidewalk and utility companies can work within that easment. It may be your property but you cannot fence it in or not allow peoplr on it . Shovel your walkway.
To #6, The township owns the sidewalk and grass between the sidewalk and street, however it is your responsibility as the homeowner to maintain the sidewalk and grass between the sidewalk and street on behalf of the township.
A greatful parent why do I have to maintain the township property? Just like the township maintains the streets they should maintain the sidewalks if they own it.
To jtw an easement doesn’t require me to shovel the snow. All it does is force me to allow entry. You must admit the law is communism. (Or socialism whatever) And that’s my point.
What a joke, kids shoveling snow? Cutting lawns, baby sitting, lemonade stands. It’s all a bunch of mush that goverment has to step in and so call protect people.
Can the government pass a law to protect us from the government? We need protection from all the regulations and laws. We all might be fined or jailed soon for breaking all these laws.
jtw says it all.