I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Jan. 14, 1997
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The Bemidji City Council raised the ire of several residents last week with its proposal to require people to park their cars on different sides of the street every other day. In response, the Council tabled the second reading of the proposed calendar parking ordinance to allow for more public discussion, and possibly a public hearing.
Calendar parking, which would take effect next fall should the Council adopt the policy, requires vehicles to be parked on the odd side of the street -- designated by property addresses -- on the odd days of the month, and on the even side on the even days of the month. On east-west streets the north side of the street would be designated as the odd side.
The law would not be enforced from 6 p.m. to midnight to allow vehicles to be moved to the correct side of the street. Streets would be posted with ordinance signs, and violators could be towed.
Under the proposal, calendar parking would be implemented citywide from Sept. 1 until May 31 -- except on streets exempted via City Council resolution.
But Bemidji is not alone in its parking policy dilemma, other cities in northern Minnesota also face upset residents when snow removal procedures are implemented. And the difference among policies is striking.
Here are three other northern Minnesota cities' snow removal and parking policies:
Brainerd (population: 12,350) which is located about 100 miles south of Bemidji does not use calendar parking, according to City Engineer Jeff Huelsether. He said that after a snowfall of more than four inches, the city's street department declares a snow emergency which is announced via local media. The first night after the snowfall, emergency snow routes are plowed along with north-south streets. That means parking is banned on north-south streets for one night. One the second night after the snowfall, parking is banned on all east-west streets and snow is removed from curb to curb. Huelsether said the policy is about 10 years old, and the major disadvantage is the number of residents who do not follow the policy. Those who do not are fined $25.
Virginia (population: 9,410) which is located about 140 miles eat of Bemidji does use calendar parking, according to Public Works Supervisor Les Peterson, but it is implemented in a different form. He said that from May 1 until Sept. 30, calendar parking is implemented on a weekly basis -- one week odd and the other week even. However, as of Oct. 1, the policy is enforced daily. The policy has been around at least 20 years, and it works "fairly well," Peterson said. However, there is confusion around the time the policy switches from weekly to daily. Those who do not comply with the parking ordinance are given leniency the first week of the switch, but are fined $5 thereafter. "As the street narrows with winter, this allows us to clean one side of a street very well," he said. "The second day we get the other side and do the clean-up work."
Crookston (population: 8,119) which is located about 90 miles west of Bemidji uses a modified calendar parking policy, according to City Administrator Ray Ecklund, with different policies for downtown and residential neighborhoods. After a snowfall, a snow emergency is declared for the downtown area, and the city determines which streets need to be cleaned first -- east-west or north-south. No parking is allowed on the first night after the snowfall for the streets determined to be cleaned. In residential neighborhoods, calendar parking is not enforced, but if a vehicle sits for too long and becomes a nuisance, it is towed. The towing is charged to the owner, and a ticket also is issued. The policy has been around for a number of years, Ecklund said, but the policy is revisited almost yearly to determine if changes need to be made.
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