A proposal that could give residents a reprieve from longstanding city policy regulating winter parking will receive further scrutiny at the Haverhill City Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee after a number of residents on Tuesday aired concerns over the practice, which carries a $25 fine per violation.
As WHAV reported, current policy mandates residents alternate parking on even and odd sides of the streets between Nov. 15 and April 1 to help crews better clear roads during and after storms. A resident proposal presented to city councilors Tuesday suggests creating a grace period until plowable snow is forecasted to fall within three days.
Concerned residents were introduced by Ward 1 City Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere.
“As we all know, in the inner city, really big parts of wards one, two and three in particular, there are a lot more cars and the same amount of street that there always has been,” Basiliere said. We, as of yet, have not been able to pay for a road stretcher and we are starting to have some problems that are frequent enough and some people have come up with some solutions that were plausible enough that I thought the council should hear these problems, hear these solutions.”
He clarified that though he is open to changing the ordinance, any changes must not impact public safety, explaining, “My open mindedness to modify winter parking is heavily offset by my desire to do no harm. The thought of fire apparatus not being able to access a road gives me nightmares.”
Councilors heard from Robert Hakesly, a Tremont Street resident who owns a two-family home with off-street parking on his side of the building, who proposed the grace period.
“The goal of the grace period is to give residents parking overnight, periodic and much-needed relief from the threat of ticketing and temporary resumption of two sided parking, when feasible, without sacrificing public safety or impeding emergency vehicle access when weather and ground conditions are favorable,” he said. “In other words, we’re not taking anything away from the city in doing this process. We want to layer this on top of what’s there now.
The nearly 38-year resident said he has received two tickets for non-compliance with the winter parking ordinance—the most recent from last December in a practice, he calls, “not right.”
He explained, “There’s a particular ticketing practice that has gotten me to a solution to a thing that’s not right. You shouldn’t be ticketing when the weather is fine, the ground is bare, there’s no snow in the forecast, yet tickets are being applied to cars,” he said.
In an information sheet provided to councilors, it notes that 2,800 tickets were issued before any snowfall that required plowing.
Councilors also heard from Mary Ann Barry, an Altamont Street resident, who noted the problem in her neighborhood stems from individuals from Broadway taking over parking spaces during a winter storm.
“Right now, it’s really tough because I got out and shovel the spot and they just drive right in and the explanation they give is ‘hey, it’s public parking,’ it’s street parking, there’s nothing you can really do,” adding that “I know they need a place to park, but when I go back, I don’t have a place to park.”
Barry suggested either getting rid of the odd and even restrictions or implementing permit parking in some sections of city streets.
Terry Lemieux, a Norfolk Street resident who also spoke to councilors, said some residents in the neighborhood have to “finagle” to find parking on the dead-end road, with neighbors hoping to get an exemption from even and odd parking.
Council President Thomas J. Sullivan, Vice President Timothy J. Jordan and Councilors Basiliere, Katrina Hobbs Everett, Devan M. Ferriera, Melissa J. Lewandowski, Shaun P. Toohey, Michael S. McGonagle, Colin F. LePage and Catherine P. Rogers voted to send the proposal to the Council’s Public Safety Committee. Councilor John A. Michitson was unable to attend.