Brooklyn readying for senior snow removal program

Community NewsBrooklyn promoting senior snow removal program. (John Benson/cleveland.com)John Benson/cleveland.comBy John Benson, special to cleveland.comBROOKLYN, Ohio -- Don’t let sunny days and blue skies fool you.Wintertime is right around the corner, which is why Brooklyn is reminding those folks who qualify to sign up for its annual senior snow removal program.​“The city has offered snow removal for years,” Brooklyn Mayor Ron Van Kirk said. “We’re expanding the eligibility for people to match what we have for senior grass cutting, which we expanded earlier in the year.”Based on 250% of the poverty level or lower, the new household thresholds will be $43,890 for one person, $59,510 for two persons and $75,130 for three persons.The sign-up period runs now through Sept. 30.“As the senior population -- obviously, mostly on a fixed income -- gets older, it becomes more difficult for them to perform services like cutting their grass and removing the snow,” he said. “So the city is able to offer them that service at basically nothing.”“It just helps them with their quality of life to be able to stay in their home longer and not have to pay full freight for a lawn service for their grass and the snow removal service for their driveway that can be in the hundreds of dollars a month.”The mayor said the city is able to take care of those services for a fraction of that cost. That includes $40 for snow removal during the entire season, as well as $100 for grass cutting in the spring, summer and fall. Regarding the latter, which was brought back in 2025, Van Kirk said participation is still growing with the hope of tweaking household thresholds attracting more senior attention. “There’s always a balance of you wanting to make sure that we have enough manpower and equipment to handle what we need,” he said. As for the notion of talking about snow removal during the dog days of summer, Van Kirk laughed, “You have to plan ahead because we all know it’s coming at some point.” Read more news from the Parma Sun Post here.