Have you ever went walking around a village or city following a snowstorm and then, “Bam!” you're flat on your bottom because someone did not clean the snow from the sidewalk in front of their business?

Most of us have. And hopefully, serious injury wasn't the result of your unpleasant experience.

Since Mother Nature has granted a reprieve from precipitation this week, we figured it was a good time to talk about something that has been on our mind for a few weeks.

After Winter Storm Gail dropped over a foot of snow on the region last month, we noticed that various sidewalks in villages and hamlets across the county were not shoveled in a timely fashion. This included sidewalks in Callicoon, Broadway in Monticello and Chestnut Street in the Village of Liberty.

In any hamlet, town or village, sometimes the removing of snow in front of a business is the job of the property owner or the renter. As some businesses are seasonal in the county, the owners may be away for an extended period of time.

However, they should still make sure arrangements are made to put salt down and/or remove snow in front of their business.

As for Broadway in Monticello and Chestnut Street in Liberty, we noticed snow on sidewalks days after the storm. At such time we noticed people with no choice but to walk in the street. This is incredibly dangerous considering the amount of traffic that passes through those locations on a daily basis. And in regard to Chestnut Street, which has a few sharp corners, there's limited sight distance.

This is unacceptable.

We hope the next time a storm hits, local business owners and municipalities who have not been doing an adequate enough job clearing off sidewalks on their main streets, get their act together.

If these unsafe predicaments continue, something bad is going to happen, and we shouldn't wait for a tragedy to occur before we change our behavior.

So please ... shovel your sidewalks.