The first snow of the season hasn’t fallen yet, but the City of Warsaw Common Council approved on second reading Monday night two ordinances on snow removal.
The ordinances were discussed and approved on first reading during the council’s Nov. 2 meeting.
Local attorney Rick Helm also presented a proposal addressing residential snow removal that he developed after the city’s snowplows left a large mound of snow in front of his driveway.
Ordinance 2015-11-03 states, “It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to place or permit snow removed from any sidewalk, driveway or parking lot to be placed, shoveled, plowed or discharged upon any street in the city, unless authorized in advance by the public works superintendent of the city. Any person violating this section of this article shall be fined in the amount of not less than $50 nor more than $500.”
After discussion, the ordinance was amended to omit the words “in advance.”
Department of Public Works Superintendent Jeff Beeler said his department has had several areas in downtown Warsaw and subdivisions where contractors would place mounds of snow in the travel right of way after the city’s plows had already been through the area to maintain the roadway, which created a safety hazard for motorists. The ordinance would help the city “address those kind of things,” Beeler said.
Warsaw Police Dept. Lt. Kip Shuter said the ordinance would be enforced by the WPD and the code enforcement officer, if that position ever gets fully created.
If a plow truck driver sees a violation, Shuter said the driver would call the police and provide the car and driver information of the violator. The police then may take action.
“The intention of this primarily is to keep large amounts of snow out of the street that has been freshly plowed,” Mayor Joe Thallemer said.
Shuter said it’s a “common sense” ordinance where people violating the ordinance aren’t using common sense and are just pushing their snow onto the city’s property.
Councilwoman Elaine Call asked Beeler if he got any feedback on the ordinance after the council first discussed it. Beeler replied that contractors talked to him about it, but once they understood it they agreed it was a “common sense” ordinance, he said.
Beeler noted that surrounding communities like Fort Wayne and South Bend have similar ordinances.
Councilman Ron Shoemaker suggested limiting the ordinance to private contractors, but did not get any support for that idea. He voted against the ordinance as written.
Ordinance 2015-11-04 states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to drive any vehicle through snow that has been placed upon the street for removal by the department of public works. Any person violating this section of this article shall be fined in the amount of not less than $50 nor more than $100.”
Thallemer said the way the city maintains the downtown during winter is that snow is plowed into the middle of the road, creating windrows, and then come in with dump trucks to haul it away.
“If someone comes in, plowing through that windrow, it creates a problem,” he said, noting people do it intentionally to be mischievous.
Shuter said, “It’s usually deliberate, just like we talked about the other one. It’s a small percentage of the people. We have nothing else to cover it.”
He said the process for reporting the violation is the same as the other ordinance described earlier.
Beeler said last year they caught guys who drove through a snow pile after they almost ran over his employees.
Councilman Jeff Grose asked about adding the word “intentionally” into the ordinance, which city attorney Mike Valentine said wasn’t needed. He also asked if the ordinance needed to spell out the height of snow piles, which city assistant planner Tim Dombrosky said would only handicap the city because it would be too specific.
Helm later commented that in law school they teach that you should be more “extremely specific” in drafting ordinances so that residents know how to interpret them.
He then told the council he was at the meeting because he saw where Beeler had submitted ordinances regarding snow removal downtown “and I’m here to talk to you about the other end of the telescope, and that’s the residential areas.”
He said he tried the communication method last spring and “it didn’t work.” If what happened last winter happens again, he said Judge Mike Reed may be asked to interpret “who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong, and I would rather not do that.”
Valentine then asked Helm if he was threatening litigation “because that would change the way we move.”
Helm responded he was there to present and discuss the snow removal ordinances. He reminded Valentine that he previously said litigation was a last resort if his issue could not be resolved.
Helm lives on Sunfish Drive, a short cul de sac, approved by the city when it was platted.
Helm’s proposed ordinance, which the council did not take any action on, states, “It shall be unlawful for a snow remover to deposit snow, as a part of snow removal, upon private property, beyond the line of the right of way. It shall be unlawful for a snow remover to gather and leave snow at the intersection of a private driveway with the public right of way, other than incidental snow which might be left as a result of drive by plow operations.”
Any violation of this ordinance “shall be punished by a civil infraction penalty of not less than $50 and not more than $200. Second offenses by the same snow remover at a previous location of a violation shall be considered to be intended as deliberate retribution upon the owner of the property and shall carry a civil fine of a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $500.”
Helm said his street has specific dimensions. While he doesn’t have a problem with some snow being thrown this way and that from the plow, he said his problem is that the snow plows come, starting at the north end, plow in – sometimes taking some snow out, but then plow another row in.
“If you look at the numbers, for any significant snowfall, there simply is not enough room at the south end of that cul de sac to stockpile that snow in any fashion without doing what happens to me with some regularity, and that’s having them bring it down and stockpile it at the end of driveways,” Helm explained. “And I’m full cognizant that we have snow emergencies. … And it happens, but it still shouldn’t be an excuse to say we’re going to start using folks’ driveways.”
Helm said he didn’t care if his ordinance got passed, as long as the snowplow drivers get instruction on where’s best available to put snow, and that’s not in front of residents’ driveways.
“I suspect there’s other people in the community who has had this problem,” he said.
Thallemer said the ordinance can be discussed if the council feels a need for it, but it possibly could be dealt with without an ordinance and on a case-by-case basis.
“If it’s done administratively, that’s fine with me, too,” Helm said.
(Story By The Times Union)
