Keokuk, IA – Main Street parking spaces are currently at a premium in downtown Keokuk.
The reason is that dozens of them are sitting under several feet of snow.
The snow-covered spaces are not changing people's parking habits, though.
Instead of parking along side streets or in public lots, they are parking in the outside lanes of Main Street.
Police Chief Tom Crew says that has reduced traffic to one lane in each direction.
"The situation became problematic because people were trying to clear out some parking spaces and it was backing up traffic for 6-7 blocks," says Crew, "so if someone is not prepared for that and accelerate through there and they realize it's gone down to one lane, we will have more accidents."
Crew says one option is to officially limit Main Street traffic to one lane in each direction until the snow is removed. Another is to require cars to be moved so crews can remove the snow.
City leaders plan to meet, later today, to decide how to address the issue. The meeting should also cover removing snow from residential streets.