Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.
A group of Haverhill residents are pushing back against a longstanding city weather policy that threatens to ticket parked cars even when there is no snow on the ground.
City Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere is asking his colleagues to hear the winter parking concerns of three residents—Mary Ann Barry, Charles Eugerio and Robert Hakesly—and their proposed solutions. Current city ordinances require monthly alternating even or odd side of the street parking between Nov. 15 and April 1 to help crews better clear roads during and after storms. A proposal before the City Council instead suggests grace periods be allowed until forecasts suggest “plowable snow (is) due in three days.”
“The goal of grace periods is to give residents, parking overnight, announced, periodic and much-needed relief from the threat of ticketing and a temporary resumption of two-sided parking, when feasible, without sacrificing public safety or impeding emergency vehicle access, when weather and ground conditions are favorable,” the proposal reads.
An information sheet provided to city councilors reports about 4,043 tickets were issued last year at a cost of More than $100,000 to residents. This season, it notes, 2,800 tickets were issued “before any real snowfall fowled the roads that required plowing.”
Specifically, the proposal suggests the city’s Public Works Department monitors weather forecasts and notify the police department to hold back on ticketing during designated grace periods. Further, the plan suggests city officials use robocalls, websites and news media to relay when parking enforcement resumes. Under the proposal, police would place English- and Spanish-language notices about the revised policy on car windshields beginning Nov. 15.
Proponents suggests other benefits of the plan are freeing up police night patrols and reducing resident ticketing complaints.
The current ordinance has also been called confusing for requiring even side parking during both November and December before rotating based on whether the month is odd or even numbered. Residents who are ticketed by police must pay $25 per parking violation. A 1984 amendment to city code exempts Mable Street from the alternating side restriction.
The Haverhill City Council meets Tuesday night at 7, remotely and in-person at the Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers, room 202, Haverhill City Hall, 4 Summer St. As a public service, 97.9 WHAV plans to carry the meeting live.