WARREN — City council’s Traffic and Safety Committee examined ways to curb on-street parking that has increasingly blocked sanitation trucks and other city services.

Those who attended Tuesday’s meeting discussed changes to outdated ordinances to better align with modern operations and prevent health hazards like spilled trash and vermin.

Committee chair Tina Milner, recapping the discussion Wednesday, talked about how parked vehicles on residential streets have made it tough for crews to provide reliable garbage collection.

“They’re having problems getting down the streets in order to provide the services that residents are paying for,” Milner said.

During Wednesday’s regular council meeting, Milner said she plans to host future discussions on the matter in the coming weeks.

The discussion Tuesday touched on current rules as Warren’s overnight parking ban is from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Milner said this can fall short because sanitation runs can start as early as 10 p.m. because of breakdowns or staffing issues. This leads to inconsistent enforcement and confusion for residents, many of whom lack off-street options for multiple vehicles.

Engineering input pointed to lingering allowances for parking on busy four-lane thoroughfares, such as the curve along Tod Avenue or the stretch of Parkman Road between Drexel and Summit streets.

“We’re just trying to bring our city up to code, into the 21st century,” Milner said. She added that the group plans to review truck routes and no parking zones in a follow-up session.

The topic of enforcement is one of the challenges as police officials during the meeting said that $10 civil fines offer little deterrence since they don’t impact licenses.

Officer Zach Jones stressed discretion in ticketing, recognizing space constraints, but suggested physical interventions like those during snow emergencies work best to ensure compliance.

City Engineer Paul Makosky floated a graduated approach that gained traction, starting with citations plus hard-to-remove adhesive notices on vehicles as visible warnings, and reserving towing for repeat offenders. Part of the aim of the talks was to prioritize access for services without overly punishing residents.

UNDERGROUND ELECTRICAL LINES APPROVED

Also Wednesday, Warren City Council gave the green light to a license agreement with Ohio Edison, paving the way for underground electrical lines as part of the Perkins Park bridge replacement over the Mahoning River.

The move, approved during council’s regular meeting after caucus talks, lets the utility bore beneath a city-owned parcel between the river and the downtown peninsula area to relocate transmission lines that would otherwise clash with the new bridge.

Councilman Todd Johnson, I-1st Ward, who introduced the measure, called it the quickest fix given the project’s tight deadlines.

“This is the best, most efficient way to do it,” he said, noting the lines must go underground to accommodate the work.

Safety Service Director Eddie Colbert explained the setup, “The lines currently go across the river, but the bridge and the lines would be in the way, so they’re going to bore underneath the river.”

Johnson added after the meeting that project funds are slated for spending by October, with construction kicking off once the weather breaks.

The approval comes amid ongoing revitalization efforts for the larger Peninsula Project.

Just two weeks earlier, council unanimously greenlit contract negotiations for a $2.4 million pedestrian bridge as part of the broader Warren Peninsula Project.