I got towed Saturday night because I was parked on a street that had been plowed about 12 hours before that? Makes sense, right?

This is what I emailed my councilor, Kermit Staggers:

Kermit-

I’m writing to you about a concern I have with snow removal in downtown Sioux
Falls during a recent snow alert.

Early Sunday morning (1:15 AM) my car was ticketed and towed on 12th St. in
front of Tommy Jacks bar.  I was able to talk to the officer who ticketed my
vehicle during that time. He said it was being towed because downtown was
under a snow alert (which was true) but as I pointed out to him the spot I was
parked in was clear, and I also pointed out to him it had been plowed probably
Saturday morning because you could see the parking line paint on the street
pavement. He said “NO VEHICLES can be parked on the street during a snow
alert, and I don’t make the rules.”

BUT this is what I found on the City website:

‘All vehicles parked in a snow alert zone are subject to ticketing and towing
during snow plowing operations until the streets have been plowed. ’

NOTICE: ‘Until the streets have been plowed’.

This is why I parked there, because it had already been plowed.

But it gets better, the towing company that towed me ‘Lightning Towing’ would
not let me pick up my vehicle until 8 AM Monday morning, and when I did pick
it up, I got into an argument with them because they wanted to charge me for 2
days of impound (Even though I had no way of getting my vehicle on Sunday). I
won the argument, but it makes me wonder how many people they take advantage
of?

The sad part about this is all is even if I was asking to get my ticket
dismissed, I am still stuck with the $116 I had to pay to get my vehicle back.
Another flawed city ordinance, that no one cares to fix.

This ordinance needs to be fixed for several reasons:

The officer who ticketed me is ignorant to the city ordinance, as I pointed
out above.

If it was necessary to scrape the dry pavement one more time on 12th street,
couldn’t it have waited until after 2 AM? I found out later everyone who
parked on that DRY street was towed. Is this how we promote people to come
downtown by towing law abiding citizens?

I paid the ticket, I figured if I had to come down there and argue with them
about it, it wouldn’t be a pretty site. I found dealing with city employees is
frustrating to say the least.

I’m asking two things to come from this:

Police officers need to use common sense when enforcing laws and they need to
learn the ordinances.

I just hope that $25 dollars isn’t spent on another 3 Million dollar street to
nowhere, but my guess is it probably will be, and I won’t be parked on it.

Scott L. Ehrisman