300-plus tickets issued during plowing in Mitchell

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Mitchell Police Division Resource Officer Pat Oleson writes a parking ticket for a car parked on East Third Avenue during a snow emergency earlier this year. (Chris Huber/Republic Photo)

Talk about it

Mitchell police officers have written more than 300 snow-related tickets since the snow started to stick to streets.

Meanwhile, the Street Division has burned through more than half its annual overtime budget after slightly more than a month of the year has passed.

Assistant Chief of Police Leon Baier said at least 314 snow-related tickets have been issued since Nov. 15. He said 48 were written in the downtown District A; 260 in east, west, north and south districts and 16 on emergency routes.

Another 41 tickets were written for vehicles left parked in the same spot for more than 48 hours, but Baier said it’s difficult to determine if all those are snow-related, since that is illegal year-round.

Baier and Chief of Public Safety Lyndon Overweg said this has been a routine year.

“Actually, I think it’s pretty normal,” Baier said. “It could even be a little low, especially considering all the snow we’ve gotten.”

“It’s pretty typical,” Overweg said. “Every snowfall, we continue to issue snow-related tickets.”

A ticket for not moving a vehicle during a snow emergency is $25. That doubles after 48 hours, and that time includes weekends and holidays, since there is a drop-box for tickets and the police station is open at all hours.

A ticket for leaving a vehicle in the same spot for 48 hours is $15. That also doubles after 48 hours.

Vehicles left in emergency snow routes are ticketed and towed immediately during a snow emergency, Baier said.

Private towing firms remove vehicles for the Police Division. That usually costs about $150, Overweg said.

The city does not receive any of that money. Towing firms that meet city qualifications take the towing assignments in rotation, Baier said.

Overweg said it’s unclear how many vehicles have been towed. He said it’s not a pleasant experience for anyone involved, but no one has been arrested for objecting to a tow, he said.

“Not all of them are happy, that’s for sure,” the chief said.

The problem is that some people seem to pay no attention to weather forecasts and don’t follow local media, Overweg said.

Snow alerts are announced on the city website, www.cityofmitchell.org, on The Daily Republic website, www.mitchellrepublic.com, and on both local radio stations.

People can also sign up for text alerts through The Daily Republic or through www.nixle.com.

The dozens of cars left on streets during snow emergencies haven’t caused tremendous problems for the city’s street crews, according to Street and Sanitation Superintendent Ron Olson.

“They write a lot of tickets every year,” Olson said. “I don’t know if it’s a lot worse than any other year.”

He said when large storms hit, people usually get vehicles off the streets.

“A big one, a big snowfall, people tend to get them off quite well for those kind of snowfalls,” Olson said.

But he said smaller storms seem to catch drivers unaware and more vehicles are left out.

“That’s where we see more vehicles out on the streets.”

Olson said he understands it’s been a long winter with numerous storms.

“When you put that many — we’ve had one after another after another after another,” he said. “Some of them are just nuisance events, but you’ve got to make the roads safe for the public.”

Olson has a $45,000 overtime budget for the year and already had spent $25,000 of it by the end of last week.

More of the money may be used before spring, Olson said.

“We’re still a long ways from spring, April,” he said. “March is sometimes a very snowy month.”

Olson said he has to send out his crews when the snow flies.

“This time of year, we don’t have a lot of choice,” he said. “We have to go out and make sure it gets cleaned up.”

He said in years past, the council has always recognized that fact and provided funding to pay for snow removal.

The Police Division hasn’t used much if any overtime due to snow removal, Baier said, but it has demanded a lot of time.

“It’s just part of winter assignments,” he said.

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