Cheney’s police department is proposing changes to the city’s snow removal ordinance it hopes will lead to less confusion and conform to current practices by utility crews when the snow flies.
The current ordinance requires vehicles be off city streets between midnight and 6 a.m. whenever two or more inches of snow accumulates. The exception to this are vehicles parked in the central business district, defined in the ordinance, which must be off the streets between 3 – 6 a.m.
The proposed changes remove all of this, except the two-inch minimum accumulation, replacing it with language that no vehicle will “be parked or left standing upon any such street or city right-of-way” as long as snow remains uncleared.
“It’s about keeping the roadways clear not only for traffic but for pedestrians as well,” Police Chief John Hensley said.
Hensley said he was under the impression crews were doing snow removal during the graveyard shift. After talking with Public Works Director Todd Ableman, he found this was not the case, and that crews are able to remove snow much quicker than before, thanks to several more pieces of equipment.
Ableman said they can remove snow from city arterials — Betz Road, Washington Street and State Route 904 — in about 4–6 hours, depending on snow depth. The city uses two blade-equipped trucks without gates to clear the arterials, which don’t have the same amount of access points as residential streets.
“Those trucks can move a lot faster than our heavier pieces of equipment,” Ableman said.
Once arterials are opened, the city moves four other pieces of machinery onto residential streets, beginning around Eastern Washington University and then into other side streets. Those pieces are a grader with a gated blade and three front loaders with blades, one which is also gated to prevent blocking driveways with snow.
The gated and non-gated blades are paired and assigned different areas of the city. All this enables crews to remove snow from streets within 12–16 hours after rolling out.
Ableman said they also discussed increasing the minimum requirement of two inches of snow accumulation, but decided against it because heavy snowfalls followed by warming temperatures subsequently followed by cold increase the chances of creating difficult to treat icy conditions.
“It costs more to break up (ice) with deicer, and it’s not as effective to melt it from the top down,” he said. “We just try to get after it after two (inches).”
Ableman said crews are slowed down the most by cars parked on streets, and that the midnight to 6 a.m. timeframe was difficult to enforce, especially in attempting to remove vehicles. The changes to the ordinance also gives a “police parking official” the same authority as police officers to have an unlawfully parked vehicle impounded or moved to a place where it “does not impede snow removal.”
Members of Cheney’s “Volunteers in Policing” have been assisting Cheney officers in identifying cars that need to be ticketed, marked and possibly removed.
Hensley said the department’s notification process remains the same. Officers first seek to contact the vehicle’s registered owner, mark the berm the vehicle is in and issue a citation before impounding.
“We have a history of giving people substantial warning before yanking a car,” he said.
Hensley said EWU provides free parking in lot 12 behind Roos Field, and during the latest storm Feb. 3–4 sent a tweet to students noting they could park for free in all university-owned lots. Ableman said residents could also park on streets already plowed to avoid a citation.
So far in 2017, Cheney police have impounded 13 vehicles, and have another 30 or more vehicles marked for removal. Some of these, including boat trailers or campers Hensley said haven’t moved in months.
The city has an ordinance requiring vehicles parked on streets to be moved at least once every 72 hours, a practice that creates turnover of parking resources and prevents usage of city streets for long-term storage.
“It’s a bit annoying for somebody to put their car in front of somebody’s house and just leave it,” Hensley added.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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