As winter comes to a close in Missouri, the Truesdale Board of Aldermen is considering an ordinance to clear streets for snow removal after a particularly precipitous winter. 

While an actual ordinance is still in the works, aldermen, along with Mayor Jerry Cannon, Police Chief Casey Doyle and Public Works Director Steven Harlan were in agreement that something needed to be done. 

“Whenever it snows, we have a lot of issues with cars being parked in the road, trying to get around them, plowing around them… So I looked up ordinances from other cities and this is what we came up with,” said Harlan. 

The ordinance would give the city the authority to tow cars that are parked on streets citywide in the event of snowfall to allow street crews to more effectively clear the roads. 

Doyle was appreciative that the ordinance would cover Truesdale in its entirety, instead of taking a piecemeal approach. 

“It makes it a whole lot easier if it’s citywide, not neighborhood by neighborhood,” said Doyle. 

Aldermen wanted to be clear that the goal of any ordinance they passed would not be to tow cars, but to give the city a way to enforce street clearing in the event of snow. 

Another part of the ordinance they wanted to consider was how citizens would be informed they were required to move their cars. 

“If it’s a citywide ordinance we can just run through, probably knock on doors first and say, get your car out of the street, but if we don’t get an answer we’re just going to call the tow truck,” said Doyle. 

City Attorney Amber Bargen questioned whether the city could contract or make use of a mass communication system to notify residents when they are required to move cars from the streets. 

“When I was in Branson for a conference last fall, there were all kinds of (companies) who wanted to do that for cities,” said Cannon. “And we had lots of information about that, it was just trying to make sure it would fit into a budget.”

Alderman Mike Thomas also suggested the city could reach out to the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, which operates the Code Red notification system for the county, to see if they would be willing to handle notification services. 

“Even if we have to pay them a slight fee just to have it in the city so we don’t have to go reinvent the wheel, it’s good,” said Thomas. 

Alderman Kari Hartley also thought it would be worthwhile to include a provision that the ordinance is activated by any level of winter precipitation, as opposed to a certain amount of snow or accumulation. 

“That way, if we did end up with a pop-up snowstorm in the middle of the night or something, they know the next morning when they wake up they need to move their vehicles,” said Hartley. 

It is worth noting the city of Warrenton already has a snow removal ordinance and Wright City enacted a similar ordinance earlier this year. 

The board tasked Bargen with reviewing Harlan’s proposal and returning to them with a finalized bill at their next meeting on March 26.