The Sturgeon Bay Municipal Services Department is warning residents about the danger of allowing children to build forts near the road, especially in snow banks. The large amount of accumulated snow this winter season has made for very large snow banks. Children may think it’s a great place to build a fort or snow tunnel. Besides the risk of the fort or tunnel collapsing & trapping a child inside, there is also the risk of a snow removal vehicle not seeing a child inside of one while plowing or pushing snow banks back to help widen the streets. The city street department has found several forts built into snowbanks at the ends of driveways. The forts are not visible to plow drivers who may not realize they have hit a fort until it’s too late. In addition, it is unsafe for children to play behind snow banks because drivers cannot see them & often times larger pieces of ice or debris may be thrown behind the snowbank, causing injury. The street department suggests that children who want to build a snow fort should be encouraged to do so further back in the yard, away from the street.
