Parked cars giving snow plows trouble

By Ed Ernstes (ernstes@wsbt.com)

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Parked cars impede snow plows

Street departments are asking area resident to move their cars off city streets so road crews can remove the snow. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jan 15, 2009 at 7:29 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jan 19, 2009 at 7:27 PM EDT

ELKHART — Mother Nature is giving road crews a workout. But in parts of Elkhart, some homeowners are putting them through an obstacle course.

“We have to be very careful going around the parked cars and some abandoned cars like that,” said Street Commissioner Marty Morgan. “There are areas of the city that it’s pretty tight for our vehicles to get through.”

“You want to make sure when you park your car, if you can, park it in the driveway,” said Arvis Dawson with the mayor’s office. “Or move it up to a different spot so the plow can come by and remove the snow, which would make it safer for our passenger traffic.”

Unlike other cities, the only way Elkhart officials can make owners move their cars is by declaring a snow emergency.

Right now he says the city is taking a wait-and-see attitude about the weather. If conditions worsen, Dawson, the mayor and street commissioner would sit down to see if a snow emergency was warranted.

“That's one of the last things we do here in the city,” Dawson explained. “We believe we can continue to move the snow in a way that will continue traffic to move, and if we just have to ask people not to travel, we can do that as well. But a snow emergency is something that we do in the extreme.”

Other street departments in the area are also asking people to get cars off streets.

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