CLARKWATCH: Follow news and updates regarding sanctions on Mayor Clark.

Street sweeping tickets spike by 25 per cent in 2019

May 28, 2019 | 11:53 AM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Street sweeping has officially finished in Medicine Hat, and according to City Bylaw, the number of tickets issued to people who didn’t move their cars has gone up.

The city issued 25 per cent more tickets this year compared to last, setting the total at about 600. In 2018, the city issued roughly 460 tickets.

Heather Trail, bylaw supervisor for the City of Medicine Hat, says the spike could be due to an increase in people ticketing vehicles.

“Yep there were more tickets written this year, maybe a little bit of an increase,” says Trail. “But that could simply be due to the fact that we maybe had some more resources out to it this year.”

Those tickets are $50 each, unless they’re paid within a week, which reduces them to $25. That means between $15,000 and $30,000 was collected.

However, Trail says officers were trying to prevent residents from being ticketed by warning them before sweepers came into their neighbourhood.

“We really try to avoid the ticketing though,” says Trail. “This year we got ahead of the street sweepers and tried to do some door knocking to get people moving their vehicles, because a lot of times we know these things slip peoples minds and we know some people are just home for a minute so we tried to get ahead of that as much as we could.”

If there’s any areas of the city that did not get swept, contact municipal works, and they’ll re-visit the area when time permits.