Steve Smith, interim director of public works for Bangor City, told the Infrastructure Committee on Oct. 20 that the city will return to its prior winter parking policy and call a citywide on-street parking ban after the first major snow event.

"We're gonna go back to the old ways of doing things," Smith said, describing a decision to reinstate a blanket ban on on-street parking outside the downtown district for the winter season once the first citywide plow call is made. Under that approach, vehicles left on the street after the declaration could be towed; Smith said the police department is responsible for enforcement.

The committee heard that the shift responds in part to operational challenges encountered during a trial last season. Smith said the city experimented with altered parking rules and different plow schedules last winter but will revert because crews and operations proved easier to manage under the previous system. He asked councilors to help spread the word through constituent contacts and social media, and said the city will post the change on its website.

Why it matters: reinstating the citywide parking ban affects residents citywide and changes when and where people can park during snow events. It also relies on Bangor Police Department enforcement and on public outreach to prevent tows and repeated plowing costs.

Committee members asked how the city will notify residents and how strictly police will enforce the ban. Smith said the city will provide warnings for a period after the policy is announced and expects police to enforce towing only during significant storms. "They just do some warnings for a while before we start," a police-enforcement discussion in committee indicated; the meeting did not record a separate police policy change.

Smith also described workforce challenges that could affect snow operations. He told the committee that the Public Works hiring pipeline will be "full as of the November 1," but that roughly half of recent trainees do not remain with the city: "We have trained 32 people through that course, and only 15 of them remain." He cited pay competition in the private sector and the demanding nature of night-time snow operations as retention barriers, and estimated that an external commercial CDL course costs about $5,000 per trainee.

Smith said the department will continue basic pretreatment activities before storms and make initial sidewalk passes downtown, but businesses wanting consistently bare sidewalks after a storm should plan to clear them themselves or use a downtown partner service. He warned the public to be patient with inexperienced drivers: "They will be inexperienced people, so it'll be a little slow. Bear with us."

The committee did not take a formal vote during the meeting. Smith described administrative steps the department will take to implement the operational change and outreach plans.