New Year's revelers' cars impounded in Whitefish

A number of New Year’s Eve revelers got an unwelcome surprise when they tried to retrieve their vehicles from downtown Whitefish early New Year’s Day.

Their vehicles had been towed away so the streets could be plowed.

Bill Riebe of Kalispell was dismayed to learn his daughter, who had taken a shuttle bus to an outlying establishment, had to pay a $150 impound fee to get her vehicle back.

More than 20 vehicles were impounded that night.

Whitefish City Manager Chuck Stearns said the city had gotten requests from several downtown merchants to get the streets plowed, and decided to go ahead with clearing snow because a storm was forecast.

“Storms don’t take a holiday,” he said. “We’ve been criticized for not plowing Central Avenue.”

Stearns said the downtown streets are posted with signs that stipulate no parking between 2:30 and 6 a.m. Crews were on overtime because of the holiday.

Riebe maintained that impounding so many vehicles on a holiday night was “not good public relations.

“For us, being from Kalispell, we’re not familiar” with posted hours for plowing, he said.

“We try to patronize businesses in Whitefish and this is how we’re treated. It was a poor decision by the city.”