DPW director asks selectmen to reconsider winter parking ban

WINSTED — At the Board of Selectmen’s meeting on Monday, Nov. 3, Public Works Director Jim Rollins asked the board to reconsider a winter parking ban.

For many years, from the beginning of November to the beginning of April, a ban on parking on town streets was enforced.

The band prohibited automobiles from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., with violators fined $50.

At a meeting in March, the selectmen voted to repeal the ban by a vote of 5-2 along party lines, with Selectmen Candy Perez and George Closson, both Democrats, voting against the repeal.

At the Nov. 3 meeting, Rollins said he was surprised that the board rescinded the long-standing parking ban.

“When I first heard about the change, it didn’t seem like it would work for me,” Rollins said. “But then I’m like, well, let’s try it and see how it works. Then as [the department] was discussing plans on moving snow, I started to think that this could be a problem. How is this any different than plowing with cars parked on the side of the road during the day? Cars in the daytime move and only park for a short period of time.”

Rollins said he is concerned with the limited visibility drivers have when they are in a plow truck.

“In the daytime, you can see what’s ahead of you and you can do what you need to do so you won’t plow that area [where a car is parked] or plow it in a better way,” Rollins said. “At night, your visibility is so limited, you could have plow trucks getting into situations that are unsafe and impractical.”

Rollins said that DPW foreman Dennis Millard and Interim Chief of Police Kevin Kinahan are concerned about the removal of the parking ban.

“A lot of people who have to deal with the roads in the winter see this as an added challenge, and we want to voice our concerns,” Rollins said. “I’m not saying that I’m fully against it. I’m just saying that we have concerns, and we want to bring it to your attention.”

Selectman Jorge Pimentel said that, despite the removal of the parking ban, residents are not allowed to park on town streets during a snowstorm.

“We are still holding everyone accountable when there is a storm coming,” Pimentel said. “You just don’t get blindsided by storms anymore. I think we are past that stage for the most part. Yes, there are exceptions. But if there is a storm coming, people know that they shouldn’t be parking on the road.”

“You are correct,” Rollins said. “But we think that it’s going to be challenging. We’ve had a discussion among ourselves and [Town Manager Dale Martin]. We haven’t worked the bugs out of it yet. Perhaps the learning curve is going to be hard. I think that it will create added challenges to a task that is already far more difficult than probably most people realize.” 

Millard seconded Rollins’ concerns when he spoke to the selectmen.

“We did have three snow squalls last year that popped out from out of nowhere,” Millard said. “They popped out in the early morning. If a car is parked on the side of the road they could hit it and [the town] could be paying for a lot of damages.”

Millard said the parking ban made cleaning up the snow easier for the DPW.

“Normally when we do clean ups it is early in the morning, so we can get people to work and school buses out,” Millard said. “It makes our life a lot easier and it makes things safer.”

Kinahan told the selectmen that he has worked for the town for 25 years, including all of the major snowstorms that have impacted the town.

“There is nothing more treacherous than going over some of these roads when there are cars parked near snowbanks,” Kinahan said. “When you are responding to an emergency, time is of the essence. Getting emergency vehicles is difficult enough when there is snow or ice. When roads don’t get plowed, it becomes even more of a hazard for people.”

Kinahan said the parking ban was all about public safety.

“For many of these cases, including during the nighttime where the majority of medical calls happen, time is of the essence,” he said. “Any kind of impediment really can have a detrimental effect on a person or a family. For our perspective, we are hoping that you can revisit this.”

Kinahan said he is not exactly sure what the town defines as a weather emergency.

“If we just go by the weather forecast, we know that they are often quite off,” he said. “You know Mark Twain’s saying, if you don’t like the weather just wait five minutes. In Winsted, we’re right on that line. I come into work from Torrington where it’s raining out, when I get to Winsted it looks like a blizzard. You can’t always rely on the weather forecast.”

Toward the end of the discussion, Pimentel repeated that the town expects all cars to be off of the roads during a snowstorm.

“Yes, this will be a change for everybody, but the back roads people are still expected to not be parking on the roads during a snowstorm in the day,” Pimentel said. “That’s where we are moving forward so instead of having something standard, we’re not expecting a snowstorm all the time. We’re giving residents more freedom, but we are still holding them accountable.”