Charlie Breitrose Snow started early Tuesday and will get much heavier during the day.
The overnight parking ban may be reduced by more than a month if the City Council approves a proposal for a temporary modification to the Winter Parking Ban on Tuesday night.
The proposal will be discussed on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in City Hall and on Zoom. City Council President Mark Sideris gave a preview of the changes during the Nov. 12 Council meeting.
“Our typical winter parking ban starts the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving and runs through March 15,” Sideris said. “I had some discussions with the Manager (George Proakis) on trying to shorten that from potentially Dec. 15 to March 1. But then, we always give a certain period of time at Christmas time to remove it, and then this particular year those kids in school are going to have two full weeks off. So what I’m going to be putting on the agenda is a temporary modification of the Winter Parking Ban to start on January 1 and end on March 1.”
The change came after a petition was submitted to the Council in January asking to permanently remove the winter overnight parking ban. Residents packed the Council Chamber for the hearing.
“We all listened to a lot of people last winter about the Winter Parking Ban. So I’ve had several conversations with the City Manager about this issue, and would like to bring for consideration a temporary modification just for this winter season, because the manager is trying to finish up a parking study,” Sideris said.
The parking study will not be finished in time for this winter, Sideris said, but he wanted to provide some relief. With no overnight parking ban, if a snow storm hits the City wants to make sure that people remove their vehicles to allow plows to clear snow and ice.
“We’re going to be discussing modification to the fines for snow emergency situations. If we have a snow emergency, particularly in this period, even if it’s December 15 and we have a snow storm, we can call a snow emergency,” Sideris said. “But our parking fines are minimalistic, and nobody seems to want to worry about the fine. So they leave their car and we plow around them. So another consideration that we’re going to be having is increasing the fine.”
Getting word out to residents will be key to the system of calling a Snow Emergency and having vehicles moved off the roads. Sideris said the City will encourage people sign up to receive notifications from the City, including about a snow emergency. (Sign up for WatertownALERT here)
Also on the agenda for the meeting will be a budget amendment to increase revenues to support a second ambulance, school funding, restoration of unspent Opioid Funds for Human Services, and transferring the Veterans Services Officer salary to the Human Services Department.
There will be a first reading for the proposed Skip the Stuff Waste Reduction Ordinance.
The City Manager will also present an item on the qualifications and qualities for the Assistant City Manager for Community Development and Planning.
See the meeting agenda here.