Winter Parking Ban Ending Early

The Board of Selectmen unanimously passed a motion to end Marblehead's winter parking ban three weeks early at their meeting at Wednesday night.

The parking ban, which was originally scheduled to end on April 15, will now end on Saturday, March 24 at 12:01 a.m., thanks to an unseasonably warm winter that produced very few snow and ice storms.

Prior to raising the motion, board member James Nye explained that the reason the ban runs into April is to ensure that the highway department has ample time to sweep the streets. That work, he said, is already nearly complete.

"Because of the lack of snow, we really haven't had that much salt or sand on the roads," Nye said. "They seem to think that by the end of next week they will have all of the roads swept."

The Board of Selectmen will still have the authority to reinstate the ban in the case of a snow emergency. So, barring an early-spring snowstorm, legal on-street parking in Marblehead will resume in a little over a week.

Full parking ban information has been posted here on the town's website.