Winter conditions bring seasonal snow ordinance
It’s the winter semester which means students get a new distraction from their studies — snow.
Mount Pleasant has to plow roads, salt sidewalks and deal with dangerous conditions, and students are required to follow the city's snow ordinances.
“Most of the questions we get are about two things: parking and snow shoveling,” said City Manager Nancy Ridley.
Parking downtown is prohibited from 4 to 6 a.m., and is prohibited throughout other parts of the city from 2 to 5 p.m., she said. “The reason is so when they do go out and plow the snow, there’s fewer cars they have to work around and less risk those cars will be plowed in.”
Mount Pleasant has a shoveling ordinance, but only businesses are required to keep the pathways clear.
“However, we highly encourage students to shovel their sidewalks because it’s a good, neighborly, thing to do even if we don’t have a specific ordinance at this time,” Ridley said.
The city is working to enact a new set of procedures when renovating streets that will focus on ease of access and safety. “We’d know by looking at these best practices what our preferences are: bike lanes, sidewalks, sharing the street, crosswalks and all of the things that make it safer.”
The city organizes events to help everyone through the upcoming cold months, Ridley said.
The city will celebrate its third "Man vs Mountain" 5K race. The winter obstacle course, which begins at Nelson Park, challenges participants to fight the cold while racing through Mount Pleasant’s park system. Registrants will receive a free beverage, sweatshirt, pint glass and a pair of Central Michigan University gloves
"The response has been so good that some of our heat times are already filled up, but we’re still accepting registrations,” Ridley said. “It’s a fun time, especially if you like the nice– cold—weather.”
