Every seat was filled at the Oconto Falls City Council meeting Oct. 14 as residents voiced their concerns regarding snow removal.
The conflict stems from the city’s tradition of removing snow for Main Street businesses that have limited space available for snow piles.
The council, however, agreed the city could no longer provide snow removal for the businesses, saying a state law prevents it from continuing the practice.
City Attorney Larry Jeske informed the council in 2009 that the city cannot plow or remove snow for private businesses, according to Wisconsin statutes.
“It is contrary to the Constitution to use public funds for a private interest,” Jeske said again last week.
Last winter’s heavy snowfall resulted in piles that violated the city’s snow removal policies, prompting the Oconto Falls Police Department to issue verbal warnings.
In March, Mayor Brad Rice asked the department to withhold citations, and the council agreed to remove the snow piles and review its snow-removal policies.
Rice said snow removal was not a problem in 2011 and 2012, because of the light snowfall. But last year brought heavy snowfall, and business owners looked to the city for help.
One of the problem areas is the alley between Main Street and Franklin Street. Businesses are responsible for plowing the parking areas, and the city plows the alley. Rice said the businesses were allowed, prior to 2010, to push the snow into a pile on a city-owned parking lot nearby. The city then removed the snow pile.
Loretta Shellman, owner of the Shellman Building on the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue, compared the snow removal to leaf pick-up in the city.
“The city removes leaves and sticks from in front of private property. It should be the same with the snow,” she said.
But council member Mathew McDermid countered, saying, “Everybody in the whole city can put leaves out to be picked up. Not everybody can push their snow out to be picked up.”
Jeff Senn, who plows snow for businesses lining the alley, said business owners will find it hard to pay the extra cost to haul away the snow.
“I don’t want to see parking spaces taken up behind the Falls Family Restaurant because (the owner) can’t afford to haul it away,” he said.
“I have to pay to get rid of mine. I think everyone else should, too,” said Alderman Kevin Rusch, owner of KW Rusch Inc., a trucking company in Oconto Falls.
“I’d like to say, ‘Let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing for years,’ but the state statute says we can’t,” McDermid said.
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