Through The Thick Of It; 12 Inches Of Snow; Parking Ban’s Still In Place

by Thomas Breen

Tim Covington at the Blvd/Crescent Monday morning. Credit: Thomas Breen photo

Roughly a foot of snow fell on New Haven between Sunday and Monday morning — with “a little flurries” expected for the rest of the day, a citywide parking ban still in place, and a decision yet to be made on whether or not schools will open on Tuesday.

Mayor Justin Elicker provided that update at around 1:15 p.m. Monday as New Haven appears to have weathered through the worst of a major winter storm.

Elicker said that the city has not yet decided when the parking ban will be lifted. The ban went into place at 10 p.m. Saturday, and means no parking on the odd-numbered side of the streets in residential areas and no parking at all on marked emergency routes and in downtown.

Elicker and city spokesperson Lenny Speiller said that, as of around 1:15 p.m. Monday, the number of cars ticketed and towed during the storm hasn’t changed since midday Sunday: 297 towed and 345 ticketed so far. Elicker said the city’s parking enforcement crew restarted enforcement operations at around noon on Monday.

The mayor also said the city and the school district haven’t decided yet whether or not New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) will be open on Tuesday. (All public schools were closed Monday, as were all other city buildings.)

“All the streets by and large are passable,” Elicker said about the work of the city’s plow trucks in clearing snow from the New Haven’s roadways. “Now we’re working on the ‘pushback’ phase, pushing back snow further and further” from the road. Since it’s supposed to get “very, very cold” later this week, Elicker said, city trucks are working now before the snow on the ground gets even harder to move.

“We’re asking people to be patient, asking for people not to plow or shovel [snow] into the street,” Elicker said. “That’s a big problem we’re seeing,” and making extra work for the city’s plow trucks.

He also urged residents to clear sidewalks of snow. The city’s public space inspector will be traveling New Haven today, he said. People could get a ticket for not shoveling their sidewalks clear.

Elicker also said that 181 people stayed in New Haven’s various warming centers Sunday night. Those warming centers have a capacity for 230 people. “No one was turned away,” he said.

Any storm-related emergencies across the city? “It was pretty quiet,” Elicker said. The Bella Vista senior apartment complex “had a burst pipe [that] impacted a small number” of residents. “By and large, people were following the advice to stay off the roads.”