Snow was a hot topic of discussion in Nesquehoning this week.

On Wednesday, two residents approached council regarding tickets that were issued following the storm this past weekend.Grace Vandermartin, a resident of Catawissa Street, had three vehicles ticketed for a total of $75.She asked council if anything could be done because with her disability, it takes three hours to shovel out one car.She said she had parked on the correct side of the street the day of the storm, but couldn’t move her vehicle in time the next day even though the state never came to plow near the curb on Sunday.“I got them out as soon as I could but it was already too late,” she said. “The cars were buried. You couldn’t even see it was a car.”She commended borough workers for doing a good job with plowing.Catawissa Street is state Route 209 and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s responsibility.Mayor Samuel Kitchko said he understood Vandermartin’s problem, but said the ordinance was posted.“We have to enforce the ordinance,” he said.Councilman George Sabol III said that overall the weather forecast was on with the timing of the storm. He said he felt for Vandermartin’s situation with the ticket expense, but said she should have moved her vehicles.“PennDOT was relentless,” Vandermartin responded. “They just kept coming through.”At this point, another resident, Sam Devan of Railroad Street, spoke up, saying that he felt the borough didn’t have enough men out plowing the day of the storm and day after so the police shouldn’t have issued tickets.“This was a major storm,” he said. “We’re lucky that we didn’t get what half the United States got. But only two guys plowing the whole borough was not enough.“I don’t think there should have been tickets given,” he added.Councilman Don DeMarco said that the borough needs an ordinance for snow.“But you don’t have enough guys,” Devan said.“That’s all I had,” DeMarco responded, noting that there were three guys plowing.“It’s your fault for not having enough guys to plow to keep with the storm,” Devan said. “That’s what the problem was. You got to have more guys.”Sabol asked Devan if he thought the answer should be the borough raise taxes to be able to have enough money to hire additional drivers.“Let’s be practical,” Devan said.“Then don’t say we don’t have enough people,” Sabol replied. “We have what we can afford to have.”Council members said PennDOT did not plow Catawissa the day after the storm while borough crews were dedicated to other streets in the borough.DeMarco said plowing isn’t to the curb anymore because people were complaining of snow being pushed onto the sidewalks.Council discussed giving Vandermartin a break on two of her tickets.Councilwoman Mary Fox said 44 tickets were issued during or after the storm.“How do we give one person a break?” she asked.Kitchko said he could not legally tell the police to take two tickets away, but said he would talk to the police department.Councilman Frank Jacobs urged council to look at the ordinance wording for the future with regard to parking tickets in the case of a blizzard.Council later voted to advertise a slight change in wording of the ordinance that was requested by Police Chief Sean Smith, which asks that it says “during the duration of a storm” instead of when a storm is forecast.DeMarco also commended the borough workers for their work during the blizzard.“They did one heck of a job for what we had,” he said. “They were out for much of the storm.”Council said people with CDL licenses who are interested in being a plow driver during storms can submit an application to the borough.