Don’t Get Towed! Local Police Reminding Residents About Upcoming Snow

We are supposed to get some snow this weekend, starting tonight, and local police departments are taking to social media to remind residents about winter parking restrictions, in an effort to save people from being ticketed and towed.

The Sauk Rapids Police Department went with a straightforward approach to educating residents about winter parking restrictions.

We don’t mean to sound like a broken record over here with the constant reminders to make sure your vehicles are off of the roadway. But hey, reality is winter is here. Which means snow, and WINTER parking restrictions. There is snow falling tonight and predicted snow Friday into Saturday as well. PLEASE make sure ALL vehicles are off the street between the hours of 2am to 7am. Plows will be out working hard to clear the streets, let’s not make their lives harder by parking on the street. If you decide to leave your vehicle on the street it may end up looking like the photo below and you’ll have to shovel yourself out. Sounds like a bad time to me but the choice is yours.

The city of Becker's Police Department also wanted to remind residents about their parking restrictions.

We want to highlight that there are two ordinances that pertain to winter on-street parking. The first, and most common is our overnight winter parking ordinance that states no vehicles may park on a roadway or boulevard between the hours of midnight to 8:00AM, November 1st - April 15th. Our plow operators frequently come in late at night or early morning to plow and this allows them to clean the road curb to curb without going around vehicles. The second ordinance, highlighted in the photo, states that vehicles must be off the roadway or boulevard any time there is a snowfall of 2" or more until the plow has cleared the street. This is again, to facilitate being able to clear the roadway curb to curb, but during daytime hours after a snowfall.

St. Cloud is reminding residents about clearing sidewalks after it snows.

The City Ordinance states that residents have 24 hours to clear their sidewalk after it snows.

City Ordinance 680:05 requires property owners to clear public sidewalks within 24 hours of a snowfall event.

Snow piles on sidewalks create a significant safety issue because they force pedestrians to walk in the road. In order to increase pedestrian safety, contractors and property owners are reminded that snow from parking lots and driveways cannot be removed to sidewalks.   Sidewalks must remain cleared the full width for pedestrians. Snow from driveways should be piled in the yard and boulevard. Pushing snow into streets, alleyways or sidewalks is prohibited pursuant to City Ordinance 600:05 Subd. 9 and 600:15, and subject to an administrative fine of $250 per incident.

If you have any sidewalk snow removal questions, please contact the Public Works Department at (320)650-2900 or check out the city’s website for more information. 

Get our free mobile app

Now all it needs to do is snow.