Council member: ‘Tweaking’ in store for La Crosse snow disposal rules

Clearly, there’s some problems with La Crosse’s current emergency snow disposal rules.

The lack of compliance or understanding of the rules was on display this week when a short snow disposal period was put into place.

It might the notification process or how the rules are understood. Either way, city council member Gary Padesky says a fix is probably on the way.

“It’s going to be looked at,” he said. “We’ll have to, and I’ve talked to a few people about it. Yeah, we will move forward. We will tweak this.”

The rule on the books now in La Crosse calls for increased fines and towing for not complying with the snow disposal period. It doesn’t, however, seem to spell out where you’re supposed to park your car to be in compliance.

The 48-hour emergency was called for at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and cancelled well before the period ended — just over 24 hours later. The streets department called it off after it was determined that the heavy snowfall in the city wasn’t accumulating on the roads.

But, while it was in effect, police say compliance was poor, though the ordinance itself doesn’t specifically spell out how to comply with the rule.

“It’s like anything,” Padesky said, “when a lot of this stuff was done, there’s always a good feeling when people passed an ordinance they think is going to help people. But, you don’t look at all the possible things that could happen when it’s done.”

As it’s currently written, the snow disposal period is clear that notice has to be dispersed to the media, that the city only needs seven hours notice to enforce it and that triple fines and towing are part of the deal.

The ordinance, however, doesn’t actually seem to indicate where you’re supposed to park your car.