SPOKANE VALLEY – One Valley neighborhood has been kept clear of snow and ice thanks to one generous neighbor but on Thursday Valley police told Troy Garcia to stop plowing the street. Garcia’s been using his four wheeler with a blade on the front to plow out his neighbors and clear the street of our record snowfall. Almost all the neighbors say Garcia is the only reason they’ve been able to get out the past two weeks. But one neighbor, who is a county roads supervisor, called police and reported Garcia is plowing snow into the street, which is illegal, so police told him to stop. Neighbors say Garcia is not leaving snow in the street and that he’s plowing snow into the berms left by the county plows.
Garcia is frustrated as he just wanted to help his neighbors and now can’t. “I don’t think it’s very fair we get out tight community, we jut get them down to the road so they can go do their business or in case of emergency that’s all we’re doing. We’re not trying to take anyone’s job or start any fires,” Garcia said. Valley police say that pushing snow into the street is a crime and falls under disorderly conduct. Even thought Garcia isn’t really leaving snow in the right of way, Valley police say it’s illegal to use a four wheeler on city streets and could result in a $124 ticket.
I suspect the County Roads Supervisor just wanted a reason to stay home, fully paid of course. This guy would be welcome at my house… anytime.
We made the blog. With all the snow we got I have seen a lot of private plows in neighborhoods. We have had over 5′ of snow in 2.5 weeks. What do they expect people to do. The city plow will just push all the snow into your driveway, so we don’t want them to come. I am lucky to have a neighbor with a big snowblower and he does the street too. OH NO.
All the rest of the neighborhood has to do is tar and feather the county roads supervisor. The police won’t be able to get to him if the road wasn’t plowed.
Another case of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, eh?
A couple of years ago in Colorado (Thornton) we woke up and found 4 feet of snow in our driveway and almost as much on the street. My wife and I got out there and shoveled our driveway, sidewalk and mail box access clear.
We went to the store and when we can home we found a 3 1/2 foot snow and rode ice dike covering our sidewalk and driveway entrance. The mail box was totally hidden. Our neighbor told me the city had come through and plowed all of the packed snow and road ice into everyones driveway and yard.
When I called the city to complain I was told that nothing could be done and I had 24 hours after the storm to remove the snow from my sidewalk and clear access to the mailbox!
I told the city weasel on the phone that the people on our street were going to band together and pay someone to re-plow the street and I was told each house would be fined $500 if anyone but the city plowed the street!
@ran6110
SARCASM ON
Respect their AUTHORITAAAAAY! You are, after all, nothing but a peasant and you should listen to your betters.
SARCASM OFF
Now Now…
Services like these are best left to city and county government professionals. In fact, you really aren’t qualified to do anything in life. The government should take over any and all roles that traditionally have been left to untrained individuals (that’s you).
New and improved services will be added to professionally raise your children, maintain your home, provided everything you need from birth to death and generally manage your life. Of course these new valuable services will cost you somewhat more in taxes (about 90% of your income), but that is a small price to pay for the peace of mind that comes with not having to do anything in life.
Silly ranting aside, I want to know what the real motivation for this is. Liability? Safety concerns? Embarrassed that an ordinary citizen could do a quicker job at clearing snow out of a local neighborhood?
Is this official in an elected post?
If he is, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. (involves lots of paper and mailboxing at election time).
If he isn’t, then, find the elected one in charge of his department.
Again. lots of paper (printed) and circularised mailboxing. But, tell the elected one that this is what you are going to do – now.
For pete’s sake, don’t vote according to the party. Vote according to what benefits you and the neighbourbood.
Make sure everyone, and I mean everyone, knows his name, what he did, where he lives etc.
Check he’s not on the school board – indeed any board. If he is make the bastards life a total misery by informing – but, don’t break the law. Remember the newspapers. Remember the radio talk shows.
That’s how democracy works, if you care to use it. It can be hellish damaging to the cretins who display this kind of anti-social behaviour.
@#7 I think it is liability but not sure. It is illegal for anyone but government plows to plow the streets unless contracted to do so.
Has anyone here ever met city/county managers like these? Most of them think the planet,,,,,, no, the universe, revolves around them.
That manager is a fucking douche. Leave it well alone.
This reminds me of an incident that happened when I was in college. It would snow and the plows would come by and bury our cars parked outside the dorm. One time it rained and encased all the cars as if in an icecube. The cops came around the next day to measure how far we were parked from the curb and gave most everyone a ticket. Needless to say there was a riot in the courthouse where several dozen of us got those tickets thrown out.
It’s good to know there’s a mole in every neighborhood.
I could not imagine living in a place like that.
#8,I think it is liability but not sure. It is illegal for anyone but government plows to plow the streets unless contracted to do so.
It’s possible the city signed a contract with the snow plow company and part of it says that no one else can plow the road. If someone were to break the road the actual snow plow operator might be held liable because “it’s a snow plow breakage” and there wouldn’t be any way to dispute it.
That being said, if the snow plow operator isn’t doing his job, he should lose his contract and the city manager should be held accountable for not managing his contractors properly using the techniques described in #7.
All your snow are belong to us.
The more I hear, the more I hate cops and bureaucrats. I HATE COPS.
@Improbus – your right, we at bad taxpayers!
So we would no longer challenge the natural order we moved to Oregon…
Ok, ran6110 (#4), that really sucks but how do you polow a street without pushing the snow off to the side, hence into the entrance of your driveway? I live in the Western NY area and that is pretty much what happens when the roads are plowed.
Too bad the Constitution doesn’t give a right to bear snow plows.
I wonder which would actually provide more worth?
@#8 I live in this city. They did higher some graders under contract but it is only because the city couldn’t keep up. Normally the city does it all themselves and it is illegal for anyone but the government to plow. It is not an anti compete issue. it is just dumb laws. It is also against the law to put your leaves in the street unless they fall there naturally.
errr. #13 not #8.
It seems every town has an idiot working there.
Should have ploughed him in.
You people have forgotton the basic fact that the streets do not belong to the people, they belong to the government.
Just ask the government, they will tell you I am correct.
#19, Dude, that sucks.
Is this anything like prohibiting people from working on the electrical distribution system or the public sewers?
Why?
Not putting leaves into the street makes sense to me==how come putting snow into the street does not?
How do we make these judgments?
The neighbors need to throw an extended blanket party for the asshole that turned the good Samaritan in.
The bullies are winning
I believe this is all about this one neighborhood getting cleared streets, and the county roads supervisor is worried about other neighborhoods complaining about their roads not being cleared.
On a different note, what if he had a big snowblower and was throwing the snow into the yards instead of the side of the street. My guess the powers that be would find something else to threaten him with to get him to stop.
In our neck of the woods, the county plows will fill up your drive entrance. Then along comes a county 4X4 that will push the snow out of the drive. The 4X4 might take a little longer, but eventually they will get to you. Of course, if you do it for them they greatly appreciate it as it makes it that much faster for them to get to the next house.
In this case I would be phoning the city or county and talking to my representative. The chances are pretty good that they don’t (and won’t) know until someone tells them. Talking to your local representative isn’t so they know what they have to do to keep their job, it is so they may act on your behalf.
@BillM – Well, I guess the part I missed telling was that we lived on a tier 3 street that the city/county never plowed before (7 years) so if we had known we would have waited.
I would have liked #17 answer where they came by with a smaller truck and undid the damage.