So, let’s say Mother Nature has just dumped a good foot of snow on Wareham and you’re out and about trying to walk the dog, get to the school bus stop or do a few Main Street errands. But’s what’s up with the heap of snow on so many sidewalks?

Who – other than Mother Nature – is supposed to take care of the mess? And how do you get them to do it?

Those sounded like simple questions, logically asked by lots of residents as winter sets in. But it turns out that the answers aren’t so simple.

“I’m not even sure there is a bylaw on,” snow removal from sidewalks said Dave Menard, interim director of Municipal Maintenance.

Menard has worked in the department for years, but was only recently named to at least temporarily fill the vacancy created by the retirement of long-time municipal maintence director Mark Gifford.

Menard explained that Municipal Maintenance “would clear sidewalks around the center of town, the schools and other municipal buildings,” but he said he didn’t know who – if anyone – has legal responsibility for clearing other sidewalks.

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan was also unsure of the town’s policies regarding sidewalk snow removal.

“We have to look into this,” Sullivan said.

Like Menard, Sullivan is a relative new comer to his post. Named Town Administrator in January, this will be his first full winter on the job.

A casual look at the town’s bylaws reveals no clear mention of snow removal from sidewalks.

“If there’s not a bylaw, we need to make a policy,” Sullivan said. “It’s all part of modernizing the way we do things.”

“This is my first winter as the administrator,” he said.

It appears neither residential nor business property owners are held responsible for snow removal by the town. Even if there is a regulation hidden in the town’s archives, neither Sullivan nor Menard knows who would enforce the regulations.

“I haven’t heard anything on it,” Sullivan said.

Menard speculated that if there was a bylaw that required property owners to shovel sidewalks, enforcement falls on the shoulders of the Wareham Police Department.

Other area towns, such as Plymouth, do have snow removal regulations.

“It’s something I’d be looking into,” Menard said.