The Kenai City Council unanimously passed an amendment to a city ordinance regarding seasonal parking on city streets.
There is already an ordinance in place mandating vehicles not park on city streets during certain times of the year, mainly during snow months when maintenance is trying to plow.
Kenai Police Chief Gus Sandahl said the amendment created the intermediate step of a set fine which is less severe than what they used to have to do.
Sandahl: “What would happen in the past is we would issue warning tags on vehicles and sometimes knock on doors and wake people up in the middle of the night to get them to move their car. As a last resort if those steps weren’t working and the vehicle was interfering with snow removal we would have to impound the vehicle. A middle of the night inpound can cost over $300.00 and plus the inconvenience of someone not having their car parked where they thought it was when they wake up in the morning.”
That fine was defined as typically $50 and according to city code no more than $500.00.
Chief Sandahl said he does not expect to have to issue many of those fines because people typically move the vehicles when they are tagged.