Snow buries a car uptown Saturday afternoon during the Level III snow emergency. At this time, all roadways were closed to non-emergency personnel.
Oxford's snow emergency-what the city has named the Blizzard of 2008-officially ended Sunday, ending the city's Level III snow emergency.
"We have an excellent snow removal and street services crew here in Oxford," Oxford Mayor Prue Dana said. "The major streets were all cleared by Sunday."
According to Dana, the Oxford Police Department declared a Level II snow emergency Friday as driving conditions became increasingly hazardous.
"Conditions were very treacherous on Friday," Dana said. "Levels one, two and three were all instituted last weekend and when the snow emergency level reaches three, people should not be driving."
The Level III snow emergency was declared Saturday morning, closing all roadways to non-emergency personnel and prohibiting residents from driving.
However, it wasn't the cars on the road that was the biggest problem, but the ones lining residential streets.
"We have instituted snow routes and if it starts to snow heavily and you're parked on the street you have to move your vehicle," Dana said.
According to Dana the city towed about 42 cars and ticketed several more because snowplows could not get down the streets.
Dana apologized to those who got ticketed, but said the city had to get cars moved so snowplows could clear the streets.
However, Dana said that Miami University allows all students to park their cars in Millett Hall when snow emergency levels are issued.
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One of the students caught in the storm, junior Nathan Wojciak, said he was pulled over Saturday by Oxford police because of the snowy weather. However, Wojciak said he was only told to return home.
"Driving conditions were really bad and it was really difficult to drive," Wojciak said.
According to junior Doug Haynes, vice chair of the Oxford Transportation and Parking Advisory Board, the only reason more cars were not towed was because of the number of incidents of driver fatigue and accidents outweighing the need to tow cars.
Haynes said that the Parking Advisory Board plans to recommend to the Oxford City Council an increase in parking fines on snow routes from $25 to $100, however said that this increase is meant to encourage students to move their cars when the city needs it most.
"The committee's overall concern is safety rather than collecting revenue," Haynes said.
Dana said if there is more than three inches of snow, cars must be moved off the street. She also said residents need to realize that if it is snowing heavily, they need to take their cars off the street.
However, Dana said that there were fewer problems this year than in past years, and is happy with how the city responded to the situation.
"Both snow routes and clearing were better this year than in the past," Dana said. "I want to applaud the street crews for all of their excellent work."
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