Digging out of the snow and sledding down the hill after the weekend weather

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The first snow day of 2025 hit Kansas City like a ton of bricks Monday, and it is similar to how heavy it felt for people who shoveled themselves out of the inches and inches of snow on their driveway.

“I thought it’d be a nice challenge to see how the snow blower would work,” Jim Hafner said. He’s been a Fairway resident for 30 years.

“My wife teases me – I’m not as young as I used to be, so she says be careful,” Hafner continued.

Brookside residents, like Rick Pierson, told KCTV5 they were happy that the neighborhood didn’t experience power outages like what happened when less snow fell on them last year.

“It’s a big snow, it’s got everything shut down,” Pierson said. “You could probably get to work, but you take your risk getting to work, so why do it?”

Kansas City does have an ordinance on the books that requires homes to clear snow from sidewalks that are adjacent to their property, but it comes with a flexible timeline that says the chore needs to be accomplished within a reasonable time.

Pierson and his neighbor down the street Angie Carroll also shoveled out their sidewalks.

“Brookside is so nice and walkable that people that can walk to the grocery store have a path,” Carroll said. “It’s important that they don’t have to walk in a foot of snow, not to mention the mail workers, like they’re going to have a hard time delivering mail.”

Some of those residents in Brookside did get out after cleaning up their driveways and sidewalks, but it wasn’t for work.

Brookside Park has been serving generation after generation of children who want to know the feeling of sliding down a sled on a snow-covered hill.

“This is my sled, ok? It’s a nice tube,” Marianne Shay said. “It’s slick – that’s what’s good about it, and when you hit a rock, it’s a tube, so like, it doesn’t hurt.”