Marblehead Scraps Overnight-Only Snow Emergency Parking Bans

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead snow emergency parking bans will no longer be restricted to overnights after the Select Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to allow them on an as-needed basis at the discretion of the Department of Public Works and Emergency Services departments.

Marblehead voted at town meeting to replace the longstanding winter-long overnight parking bans with overnight bans that would run from midnight to 7 a.m. only when there is actually a snowstorm.

But DPW Director Amy McHugh said storms this year have already not been conducive to that time frame and argued that the town needs to be able to declare the parking bans when the snow actually starts to pile up each storm rather than wait until midnight. She added that during a typical 8-inch snowfall it takes about 14 hours to clear all the streets — making a parking ban that can last only seven hours at a time ineffective.

"It doesn't mean from 12 to 7 you can just stop clearing and go home and then come back," she said. "You have people who have been up for a long period of time. They are moving heavy equipment. They are moving lots of snow. Marblehead, everybody knows, has small streets.

"Every time it snows and we can't push it back that just decreases the lane of travel, with parking you have even less room, and then we have people who are then walking farther out and farther out.

"It is a big concern. It's a big safety concern."

McHugh said the change will not necessarily result in more bans but in more effective bans to clear the streets more quickly and more efficiently.

Town officials advocated the creation of a "blue light" system to notify residents of a parking ban and said that the "Code Red" system that sent out about 400 notification emails to residents when the season-long parking ban was first lifted now reaches 3,600 residents.

Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said residents should keep abreast of the forecast and have a designated space where they are going to move their cars in winters — like this one — that may require more snow parking bans than in recent years.

"This is actually an ask to the public — to the residents," Kezer said. "In fall, going into winter, before the storms, make a plan for a place to take your car. Whether it's on your property law, making arrangements with others, that is probably the most impactful thing that can be done to have a positive effect.

"It really is, for the residents, to do their part to allow us to do our part."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)