Winter storm hauling highlights issues with downtown parking

When three to four inches of snow covered the streets of downtown Newton after New Year’s Day, city staff encountered some issues while clearing the roadways. City council member Randy Ervin said he noticed issues prohibiting staff from effectively snow plowing a main area of town.

While meeting a friend downtown, Ervin was disappointed by the accumulation of snow that had not been removed nearly two days after the storm hit. His first reaction, he said, was to complain to the pubic works director. But after walking around the square and speaking with business owners, he determined the cause.

It was a single vehicle parked on the street parking place, which he claimed was there two days before the snow storm and was still there at the time of the Jan. 3 city council meeting. Although he said it might sound mean, Ervin questioned why the City of Newton is not towing these vehicles impeding snow removal operations.

“We expect our city people to do their job,” Ervin said. “We can’t have a car parked on the square for three days.”

Newton Public Works Director Jody Rhone and his staff held a meeting with the downtown business owners and before the snow ever arrived, Ervin added. During the presentation, those people were told the city’s plan to haul snow from the Downtown Snow Removal District.

“But none of those plans matter if we don’t give them the teeth to do their job,” Ervin said, noting the city should follow through with its ordinances in place now to prevent or fix these types of incidents. “…If we don’t, then I’m asking to staff to bring to this group (the city council) a plan.”

If vehicles are not moved after the three-hour time limit, Ervin proposed the city should “put some teeth” in the ordinance by towing vehicles.

“Because our people can’t do their job,” Ervin said. “Nobody wants to see that part, they just want to right away say, ‘The city don’t care.’ But we’re working hard. This council and the people of this town are working hard to make our square a destination spot. We talk about that all the time.”

However, the city does not look like a destination spot when cars are parked in one spot longer than expected and in turn prevent snow hauling procedures, Ervin suggested during the council comment portion of the meeting. Ervin asked staff to take a look at the issue, which may require an ordinance amendment.

The vehicle in question was ticketed for staying in the parking zone longer than three hours, but it was not towed.

Newton Police Chief Rob Burdess said when a vehicle is issued a notice and service citation, the operator of the car has 72 hours to move the car. Burdess said the city does not tow the vehicle as soon as it receives a ticket. Only after the 72 hours — or three days — have expended can the vehicles be towed.

“Unless it is a danger to traffic or a danger in general,” Burdess said. “So it would really have to be an ordinance change that we look at. To say that we want to tow every vehicle or have a tow option available to us for just a snow ordinance or just as an emergency snow operations citywide would be challenging.”

The city has very limited resources for tow companies. However, Burdess said if the council wanted to limit the ordinance to only affect the business district, that might be more manageable. Realistically, he added, there are not as many vehicles parked in the district when compared to the rest of the community.

“Over the weekend or during the emergency snow operation we wrote over 60 tickets citywide,” Burdess said. “That’s a lot of tickets. We average that every snow storm every year. So the message isn’t getting through, realistically. Many of these are repeat offenders. They get a $35 ticket each time.”

Having a tow option would be good, Burdess said. But the city has to be careful about stressing local resources. At minimum, towing a vehicle could take 30 minutes to complete, the police chief claimed. If the city towed a handful of vehicles, staff will have already spent a lot of time.

Provided each tow would take 30 minutes to complete, the city would devote about 30 hours to towing the 60 vehicles ticketed during the storm.

Ervin clarified he directly wants to target the town square or downtown business district. Although parking is a challenge every year, Burdess said staff could definitely bring back a proposal to council.

“I would really like to see that sooner rather than later,” Ervin said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com