With the snow season now upon us, the City is well prepared for both snow removal and emergency measures. The Mayor met recently with his senior staff to ensure that the procedures, staffing, and supplies for snow removal and parking enforcement are effectively in place.
City Services has stockpiled over 500 tons of salt for roads and sidewalks, tested and prepped trucks and snow plows, and coordinated snow removal route plans. The City Services mechanics have oiled, greased, and tested the 20 plows and 9 salters, including a new Ford F-350 with plow and salter The Bobcat and sidewalk plow and sander, used for main thoroughfares, squares, and municipal parking lots, have also been tested and prepped. In addition to these existing pieces of equipment, two backhoes and a loader truck have also been added to the fleet, as well as a rented sidewalk plow.
The Police, Parking, and Communications Department have reaffirmed their strategy for notifying residents of parking bans. Parking bans and restrictions will be implemented and enforced ahead of storms to ensure that cars have been removed before the snowfall so that plows can properly remove snow from streets. Once the decision has been made to declare a snow emergency, the information will be made available to residents through robo phone calls, postings on ECTV, and by the activation of the blue emergency lights along main arteries.
A reminder to residents of the current ordinance regarding snow regulations and parking restrictions: Two years ago, the City Council passed an alteration indicating that a snow season, beginning in October/November, will now be defined by the subsequent calendar year. On secondary streets where parking is normally permitted on both sides, cars must park on the side of the street that corresponds to that year.
For this snow season, December 2013 – March/April of 2014, the year used for parking bans will be 2014 – an even numbered year – thus vehicles should park on the EVEN side of the street. This would apply for the entire snow season. As always, there is no parking permitted on main arteries during a parking ban.
Main arteries include:
Chelsea, Hancock, Nichols, Norwood, Lawrence, Bellrock, Broadway, Main, Elm, Ferry, Bucknam, High, Garland, Alpine.
Failure to follow parking ban and snow emergency regulations will result in the ticketing and towing of vehicles.
The Code Enforcement Department would also like to remind people when shoveling not to throw snow back into the street. This hinders the efforts of the City to effectively plow our roadways, and is subject to fines up to $300. Also, using objects to reserve parking spaces on City streets is prohibited by City ordinance.
The Mayor and his administration ask that all residents help the City achieve a successful snow removal season by following these regulations, and thank everyone in advance for their cooperation.