Chris Kemp

April’s game of musical cars will continue for Eau Claire residents as the city cleans the past winter’s debris from the streets.

A proposed ordinance to change the ending date of alternate side parking from May 1 to March 31 was defeated 5-5 at Tuesday’s Eau Claire City Council meeting, said City Council President Howard White.

“Most of this has been generated by constituents,” said District 2 representative Dallas Neville, who proposed the change. Neville cited several District 2 residents who have contacted him requesting that the date be changed.

“Alternate side parking is something Eau Claire residents love to hate,” said Eau Claire Public Works Director Brian Amundson. He said between 3,000 and 5,000 tons of debris are picked up off the street in April, which is three times more than the rest of the year.

Debris not collected in the spring ends up in storm sewers, and then in rivers and lakes, White said.

City officials said their primary concern is efficiency.

“If we don’t get it in April … we’re going to continue to drive around those cars each and every time because the streets are parked full,” said City Manager Don Norrell.

During spring cleanup, Amundson said, the city runs five street sweepers for 16 hours a day. This is the maximum amount of time the city can sweep without paying employees overtime under the union contract, he said.

“Because of the cold weather, it’s not practical to sweep the streets in March,” he said. Temperatures must be well above freezing in order to operate street sweeping equipment.

Streets are not swept Friday and Saturday night, Amundson said. Neville also suggested that alternate side parking could be enforced only during the week.

At the meeting, sophomore Jocelyn Pade read a letter on behalf of Student Senate’s Intergovernmental Affairs Commission encouraging the Council to change the ordinance.

“We want to let people know that we do care about our city and we want to make a connection with our city council members,” Pade said.

“We think it would benefit students because the majority of students who live off-campus park in these areas.”

Senior Clare Peter, who lives in a residential area near campus, said she thinks the city could make parking more convenient for residents and still sweep streets efficiently.

“I agree with the policy of alternate side parking because I like parking on clean streets, but I would like to see the dates revised to a more reasonable length,” she said.

While she understands that street sweeping is necessary, she said, “all the way to May seems awfully long to me.”

“I’m not a big fan of having to park a block away from my house,” she added.

A change to alternate side parking could be proposed again, White said, in the upcoming City Council section.