Winter is here, meaning streets need to be cleared after it snows. However, Nesquehoning residents also need to move their vehicles during big snow events to allow plows to do their job.

During Nesquehoning Borough Council’s meeting last week, Councilman Bruce Nalesnik, chairman of the streets committee, said that winter is already testing the borough plowing.

“I ask that people obey the winter parking signage,” he said, noting that many residents didn’t move as intended during the first storm of the season.

Nalesnik said that because it was an early storm, the borough didn’t want to ticket vehicles.

“We were extremely lenient on winter parking, but I would ask that moving forward, residents do their best to honor the winter parking,” he said. “We’re not looking to ticket people, but we may have to start doing that if cars are left with piles of snow around them.”

Some questions were raised about the signage on some streets and moving.

Councilwoman Lisa Shubeck said that on Catawissa Street, there were piles left along the side of the street not plowed to the curb that then froze and created a mess.

She asked about the borough’s decision to post some streets with only one side because it caused confusion and frustration.

Nalesnik said that while correct that some streets were only posted for snow parking, Catawissa was not one of them because of it being a state route that the borough doesn’t clear.

He added that this is temporary change to some blocks to see how it works. Signs are posted on the shady side of the street on some blocks on Railroad and Center streets.

Shubeck asked moving forward if the borough will enforce ticketing for people who don’t move vehicles so plows could come through.

“If it’s not posted, we cannot ticket vehicles,” Nalesnik said. “We just ask for their cooperation. If a group gets together and moves all their cars, they can call the borough and ask if the truck can come down. We’ll make every effort if people come together and move their cars on a non-posted side, but we cannot ticket vehicles unless it’s an abandoned vehicle and it wasn’t moved within 48 hours.”

Council also reminded residence to be patience during weekend storms because curb-to-curb plowing would not take place until Monday.

“The primary goal is to get out and open up the street safely,” Councilwoman Suzanne Smith said. “If vehicles are moved, then yes, they’ll cut in and out, but they may not follow that 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. because we’re trying to keep overtime costs down. They will get there Monday, but I think residents just need to be a little patient.”

“The primary mission is to open the roads, and then secondary is the parking,” Nalesnik added.

Shubeck also added that people need to be mindful when the snow event starts because the plowing crew is not a 24-hour crew.