The Thanksgiving weekend deep freeze led to icy roads and even more frigid feelings held by some Langley business owners.

During the last regular Langley City Council meeting of the year, business owners Dan Haldeman and Kim Teller voiced their displeasure over the icy road conditions that lingered for days.

“I find it unacceptable that we can’t get snow and ice off the streets,” said Haldeman, whose therapy office is on First Street.

Snowfall Nov. 29 was promptly followed by freezing temperatures. Compacted by cars, the melting snow quickly turned to ice before the city, whose employees were enjoying a holiday vacation or were also snowed in, was ready.

“When the ice hit, it was like freezing rain… As soon as it hit it froze on the surface of the road,” Mayor Fred McCarthy said in a later interview.

“This cold, ice, freezing rain really wasn’t predicted,” he added.

The city asked Island County Public Works to treat the roads, but found that Third Street was too slick and barricaded the road.

“When they went out to scrape it, it was frozen to the ground. At that point in time, we figured that our challenges were more than we could respond to,” McCarthy said later.

The mayor agreed with Haldeman, in part, that it was unacceptable for the city to be unprepared.

“There’s really no excuse,” he said at the meeting, adding that it was “embarrassing for us.”

Second Street remained open, though slick in spots such as the crosswalk plaza.

Haldeman and Whidbey Island Natural owner Kim Tiller were additionally displeased with the city not clearing the sidewalks. With Christmas shopping season in swing, not being able to open or have customers safely reach her store was a huge hit to her ledger, she told the council.

“It’s not new … I’ve been here 14 or 15 years and I think it’s happened every year,” she said.

City code (LMC 12.16.040) calls for store owners to manage the sidewalks, though it does not specifically address clearing ice or snow. Haldeman asked the city council to consider revising its code regarding sidewalk liability. McCarthy said the city will respond to his inquiries about sidewalk responsibility by reviewing how other cities in Washington handle the issue.

“It’s a fairly common practice, especially in Western Washington, to not have the city responsible,” McCarthy said later.

Langley’s Public Works director, Stan Berryman, said many West Coast cities manage inclement weather on the streets, but leave clearing sidewalks in front of stores to merchants. In the case of the Thanksgiving snow storm this year, the city’s staff was caught off-guard and off-duty.

“Our sander wasn’t mounted, or else it would have been (sanded),” Berryman said at the meeting, referring to the roads.

Langley will respond to the inquiries, and McCarthy said the department directors will report on other city practices and its own response to the snow storm. Berryman will draft a letter to property and business owners containing the city’s ordinances and responsibilities regarding sidewalks and streets.