It's been non-stop for Somerville inspector Andrew Hayes answering complaints for icy sidewalks throughout the city. "These are all the 311 calls that came in today," Hayes said pointing to a list on his iPad. 

More than 400 complaints in the last two days, resulting in fines for at least half of them. The citations range from a warning to up to $300.

Thick layers of ice left from Sunday's storm with a freeze and re-freeze that makes it a challenge for Esther and her dog Jace. "It's pretty difficult, you have to walk in the street sometimes because you can't walk on the sidewalk," Esther said. "I don't like walking in the street with him." 

Six-hour grace period after storm

Andrew Hayes takes pictures of properties he thinks are in violation of a Somerville ordinance that gives residents a grace period of six hours after a storm ends to clear the sidewalks. "They get the ticket with the picture, and they try to fight it, and it's no, no here's the pictures," said Hayes. 

Residents must get the sidewalks down to the pavement and at least 42 inches wide. "Everybody does have an extenuating circumstance every once in a while, that's why there's an appeals process as well," said Somerville Inspectional Services Director Nick Antanavica. 

Somerville resident Chris Fausnight hopes the citations are a deterrent. "I hope it's enough to change behavior. I wish there was a better way to do it, but people need to clean up their sidewalks," said Fausnight. 

Andrew Hayes can barely keep up with the requests to examine another icy location, having already issued 150 citations himself. "Right now, everybody is just on ice, nothing else, just ice because there are so many complaints are coming in," Hayes said.