Mt. Pleasant gets by without snow ordinance

Mt. Pleasant Public Works Department have been out in the city clearing the snow the past two days. The snowstorm that started Monday evening and lasted into Tuesday afternoon left Mt. Pleasant with 5 inches of snow on its streets. While surrounding towns declared snow emergencies to make clearing the snow an easier process, Mt. Pleasant was not one of them.

'We don't have a snow emergency ordinance,” City Administrator Brent Schleisman said. 'Our main travel corridors have no parking, so we've never had an issue with those roads getting cleaned.”

The same cannot be said for the residential roads, however.

'There are a lot of residential areas that either don't have sufficient off-street parking or any at all,” he said. 'If we were to require all residents to move their vehicles instead of asking for voluntary cooperation, it would cause an issue for those who don't have other means of parking.”

'We've debated this many times in my 10 years as the city administrator, and though the Public Works Department would love to have an emergency snow ordinance to make things easier for them, we think that voluntary moving works just as well,” Schleisman said. 'Our residents are great at understanding the situation, and it maybe be an issue, but it's not a burdensome issue.”