Is this now being done by the members as well? I've seen some of the parking lots of ward buildings in the SL Valley and one in particular is looking downright dangerous.

I saw a mix a few years ago. In some cases we had a contractor do it. In others it was members.

Not sure what it is nowadays.

In our stake of zion, a contractor plows the parking lot, and members have the opportunity to shovel the Lord's sidewalks and walkways.

And by 'members,' you mean the YM, EQ, and HPG.

(at least if the ward functioned like our former ward did)

And by 'opportunity,' you mean someone called around last minute, and nobody showed up.

My friend in Utah just told me last weekend he had received a new calling in his ward: snow removal--and more then just shoveling....

It's such a snow job, they need professionals.

- And it still won't remove all the snow...

It used to be that in the winter, no matter the weather, I could go walk around the local stake center. That started changing about 8 years ago. Now, the sidewalks are never very clear and the parking lots have now become the same way. It used to be the parking lots were clearer. This winter--even if we haven't had all that much snow, the parking lot and sidewalks are still not completely clear.

Snow shoveling can bring on heart attacks.

Members are crazy to take on the additional burden.

We were supposed to have a snow storm here in Memphis yesterday. So our church (UU) sent out an e-mail on Saturday stating that if it snows, they would appreciate snow removal help before services on Sunday morning. It said to bring a shovel if you have one and they would provide coffee and donuts and snowball fight supervision. Luckily, we could just wear our jeans and not have to change for services.

Geez, the Mormons do everything the hard way. We had no trouble getting plenty of people who wanted to volunteer. Only problem was that the storm pooped out on us and all we got was some record cold temps. Yeah, and maybe it wouldn't have been all that fun if we had that problem on a weekly basis, but it's exciting when we have the prospect of a snow shoveling party once every few years.

Not to mention the liability. Can you imagine if someone slipped, fell, and hurt themselves on church property because of an icy sidewalk? The church leaves themselves wide open to a lawsuit without having an outside contractor do the work. A member might not think of suing the church, but an injured visitor to church property would.

That happened to me. I slipped on icy stairs and went to the emergancy room and was admitted to the hospital with a broken leg that night. They paid for my surgery, up to $15,000

Wait until they assign it to the Boy Scouts and their brain dead leaders.

Someone will bring a 50 lb bag of water softener salt from home and will take out the church's sidewalks and carpeting in one incident.

Our neighborhood sits on the terminal moraine or a glacier--not kidding! If we don't keep our sidewalks shoveled, the city fines us. Our ward house never shovels their sidewalk, which is about a --but they never get fined. Not fair. They don't do an adequate job on their walkway, either, and several people have gotten their ankles broken--mostly women in heels. We would wear snow boots, then change to our shoes inside. But, after having many pairs of snow boots STOLEN (coats), we women keep our snow boots and coats on the whole time, and (I would change into my organ shoes on the stand). The building was cold, anyway. I have noticed that other church always have their sidewalks and walkways cleared, with de-icer on them. So considerate!

A friend of mine fell down a rickety, narrow spiral staircase in the temple, and broke her leg, badly. It was a spiral fracture. Of course she didn't sue the church. Sue the church, and you will lose all your good standing and all your friends. Wear snow boots to church, and people will snark at you. I found the cult to be incompatible with just about everything.

My parents used to plow the parking lot at the stake center. They exchanged snow removal for tithing, as per their tithing settlement which I attended with them one year.

This was 30 years ago, so not sure what the deal is now.

This is actually a fair deal. They get a service and your parents kept all their actual money.

Here in the south of England we dont get enough snow to need to shovel it often so it never gets done. You lern to walk in heels in snow and lern to wear shoes that give you atelest some ankle support. I can get heels though ice quite well.

The last stake I was in was an example of the tiered system of Zion in many ways, including snow removal.

The urban wards with their high usage of fast offerings and lower incomes depended on ward members for shoveling. This is a very snowy part of the US, and the wards have low activity rates. Ergo, the sidewalks rarely got shoveled even though city ordinances make it illegal to have a snow-packed or icy sidewalk. Several elderly people slipped and hurt themselves walking to church along one particularly bad stretch at the back of the building.

The suburban wards use the stake center, and they paid to have professional snow removal of the sidewalks and parking lots.

It's about time.

Idaho Falls, mid 1960's. City crews on city time cleared LDS facility parking lots of snow. This service was not available to non LDS churches.

If they could remove the snow from their sidewalks the way they remove Lorenzo Snow from their history, there wouldn't be a flake left outside the chapels. All the flakes would be inside.

You're pretty funny.

When I worked for the Church, we invited local snow removal companies to put in bids. The lowest priced one always won the contract.

I've no idea what they do now though. That was a decade ago.

Getting "volunteered" to do snow removal???


Geez, I'm so glad I live in the SOUTH !

I hereby covenant to remove all snow that falls between November and February on the church property here in Brisbane. Hows that for commitment.