§ 76.14  SNOW EMERGENCY.

     (A)     Whenever during any period of 24 hours or less, snow falls in the city or in a section thereof, to a depth of three inches or more, an emergency is declared to exist in that such a heavy snow storm constitutes a serious public hazard impairing transportation, the moving of food and fuel supplies, medical care, fire, health and police protection and other vital facilities of the city.  The emergency shall continue until an announcement by the Mayor that snow plowing operations have been completed.  The announcement should be made in the same manner as outlined in division (B) hereof.

     (B)     Whenever such an emergency exists, the Mayor shall request the cooperation of the local press and radio and television stations to announce the emergency and the time that emergency parking regulations shall become effective, which time shall be no sooner than one hour after the first announcement to the above named news media and such announcement to the news media shall constitute notice to the general public of the existence of the emergency.  However, the owners and operators of motor vehicles shall have full responsibility to determine existing weather conditions and to comply with emergency parking regulations.

     (C)     During the period of the emergency, the Mayor may prohibit the parking of any vehicles upon any or all streets in the city.

     (D)     During the snow emergency no person shall park or cause to be parked, or permit to be parked, or abandon or leave unattended any vehicle of any kind or description upon public streets.  However, vehicles may be parked for a period of not longer than three minutes for actual loading or unloading of passengers or 30 minutes for actual loading or unloading of property, provided that no other ordinance restricting parking as to place or time is violated thereby.

     (E)     All sections of this traffic code concerning parking fines and impounding of illegally parked vehicles apply to this section.

     (F)     If the Mayor is unavailable to make a determination or announcement pursuant to this section, then either the Director of Public Safety or the Chief of Police may make any determination or announcement provided for in this section.