The Oconto Falls City Council found itself trapped in a snowbank controversy last week, with its tradition of helping Main Street businesses at odds with city and state regulations.
The city in 2010 adopted a code that prohibits the city from plowing or hauling snow from parking lots unless the lots are owned by the municipality. City Attorney Larry Jeske did not attend the council meeting but provided a 1978 attorney general opinion stating: “Use of municipal funds and equipment on private property, where benefit is primarily private in nature, is prohibited.”
That didn’t stop the downtown business owners and local snow plowing services from asking the city to continue hauling away snow piles that have grown to gargantuan sizes due to heavy snowfall this winter.
Lee Schmidt, owner of Main Street Pub on the corner of Main Street and Caldwell Avenue, said snow from his parking lot, plus snow from the alley and Caldwell Avenue, accumulates in a pile behind his building. Space is limited at the property where he runs a bar and restaurant and rents upstairs apartments.
“If I leave it sit there and wait for nature to take care of it, I’m losing a lot of parking spaces for customers and also for tenants who live in the building,” he said.
He said it would cost $50 a load to have the snow removed, with a potential three or four loads after a heavy snowfall.
“We can’t charge these little businesses and expect them to survive,” said John Senn, of Senn Landscaping, a commercial snow plow company that clears snow for Main Street Pub and other locals.
Until recently, the city had removed the snow piles.
According to Police Chief Mike Roberts, Oconto Falls officers issued verbal warnings whenever they saw violations to the city’s snow removal policies. A snowy winter resulted in dozens of verbal warnings, he said.
As a follow-up to the verbal warnings, the department was set to issue citations, a move that drew angry calls to the mayor and City Hall, and Mayor Brad Rice asked the police to withhold citations.
“If we’re going to have a policy in place, you have to enforce it every year,” Rice said. “You can’t wait four years to enforce the policy.”
Alderperson Jay Kostreva said he was against the snow removal policy when it passed in 2010 and still objected. He said the business owners are taxpayers who should be served by the city. By clearing snow at these businesses, it benefits other taxpayers interested in shopping locally, he added.
“I like getting out of my car and being able to go to your businesses,” he said.
The council agreed with the mayor’s stay on citations and asked that snow piles be removed as in the past, but Alderperson Kevin Rusch requested the city go one step further. Before next winter, there needs to be a clear understanding of what residents are responsible for and what the city expects, he said.
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