ATHOL – At its meeting Tuesday night, the Selectboard discussed doing away with the blanket overnight parking ban which has been implemented every winter over the past decade.

According to Chair Stephen Raymond, on March 5, 2013, the Selectboard voted to set the parking ban at Nov. 15 to April 1 each winter. Previously, said Raymond, who was a member of the board at that time, the ban was in effect each year from Dec. 1 to March 15.

“That’s the last piece of information we have regarding a vote on the winter parking ban,” said Raymond. “The weather cycle has changed. I don’t believe we get the amount of snow we used to get. However, we do get snow. We’re probably going to get a little bit of snow this Thursday. So the question becomes, how do we handle a parking ban right now when there’s no snow?”

The chair added that his son recently received a warning for parking on the street.

“I don’t know how we deal with the lack of snow,” Raymond continued. “Do we change our policy to reflect something different?”

“I know people have complained to me about it,” said board member Rebecca Bialecki. “Sometimes we get no snow for entire months of the wintertime. And when people are really struggling to find places to park for a lot of our multi-family buildings, it’s tough.”

Bialecki suggested changing the policy to “reflect how our climate has changed.” She suggested that the ban go into effect “when there is predicted plowable snow. And then we could put it out on Facebook, on our Selectboard site, and the police site and the DPW site; get the word out that the parking ban is in effect.”

Board member Kala Fisher said she did some research on the issue and found that some other communities do declare snow emergencies “so that people know not to park on the street. But I feel it’s hard because the DPW has only so much time to clean up the streets. So it snows on Tuesday, but it may be Thursday before everything is cleaned up.”

Board member Andy Sujdak said any announced snow emergency could remain in effect for 72 hours, but if there is a substantial amount of snow, that may not be enough time for cleanup.

Fisher suggested that Public Works Director Dick Kilhart meet with the board to offer suggestions before any changes to the policy are made. The board decided to invite Kilhart to its next meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17, to discuss the issue.

“I do think if we do not have snow, that we shouldn’t be ticketing people,” Fisher said. “But I don’t know how to work around if we’re getting snow, and the weatherman says six inches and we get two. There are a lot of variables but, again, I don’t think we should be ticketing people when there’s no snow.”

Bialecki said she checked with the Police Department and was told that, as of Tuesday night, officers have given out warnings, but no tickets have been issued.

Sujdak added that the board will need to decide what the penalties will be if the policy is changed.

“I don’t believe a written ticket is enough if you impede snow removal efforts,” Sujdak added.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.