Impounded in snow, vehicles left for scrap

St. Paul auctions about 500 cars each plowing season, a costly hassle for staff

By John Brewer
jbrewer@pioneerpress.com

At the front of the Cathlin Street impound lot, a buttercup-yellow '73 Buick Century with Minnesota plates sits next to a green Mazda MX-6 from Tennessee.

Nearby, a maroon 1990 Cadillac DeVille sedan, its black hood lashed with a bungee cord, has a dried rose on its dashboard.

In the back lot, a primer-gray 1966 Dodge pickup shares a long row with a lone Ford F-150 (it's for sale).

They are the forgotten — or abandoned — cars of St. Paul's most recent snow emergency.

And they're a pain for the city.

While 1,006 cars were towed in St. Paul as part of the emergency announced Dec. 20, most were picked up by their owners from St. Paul police impound lots within a day.

But two weeks later, more than 130 stragglers sit, snow-covered, in the Cathlin Street lot south of the State Fairgrounds. Another couple dozen hold on at the Barge Channel Road lot near downtown.

Most are bound for the scrap heap by way of a Jan. 22 auction, but not before the city must notify owners by certified mail, clean out the cars (making sure no personal documents, contraband or weapons are inside) and auction them off.

"To us, it's really a headache to auction these cars," said Loren Dhar, a city employee who helps organize the sale. "I'd rather have you pick up the car."

At the same time, staffers said storing and auctioning the vehicles is a public service, clearing St. Paul's roads of "street junk."

In a typical snow emergency, the impound lots handle about 1,200 cars. At the end of most snow seasons, about 500 snow-emergency cars end up being auctioned.

The only way to solve the abandoned car issue would be to make the towing and stowing service free to the public, Dhar said. But then, he asked, how would the lots pay their own fees?

Costs to the city include hiring 40 to 50 seasonal staff members at the impound lots, renting land from the State Fair and Port Authority for storing cars, and holding auctions.

The reasons cars are left at the lots vary.

Some owners can't afford the $258 for the tow, ticket and storage fee at the lot.

Some pay the fees to collect personal items from their autos but then can't afford to have a vehicle towed if it's not running.

Some cars were just left on the street to rot.

Impound lot supervisor Brett Smith said his department needs three snow emergencies in a season — November to April — to break even on operating costs.

"We'd prefer that people pick their cars up," he said, "but you're going to find that a lot of them are pretty junky."

Minimum bids are set by market price for scrap, Smith said. But that market fluctuates wildly — in spring, the minimum bid on a car was set at $375. Later in the fall, it was at $75. The price hasn't been set for the Jan. 22 auction on Cathlin Street.

The number of snow emergencies — declared by the city's public works department after 3 inches of snowfall — varies widely.

For the 2005-06 snow season, the city declared four snow emergencies.

The next winter brought two; last winter brought four.

There has been one this season.

And the break-even point is just for the impound lots — public works reports each snow emergency costs about $500,000.

The owner of the black Ford F-150 at the Cathlin Street lot, who did not wish to be identified, said it was circumstance that landed his truck there. (His nephew translated his statements from Spanish.)

The owner said the truck wasn't running when the emergency was declared. He had stored it on the street in hopes of scraping up enough money to fix it or at least sell it.

Then it was towed.

While he'd like to get the truck back, he has other bills to pay — phone, cable, utilities — and can't get the money together for the lot fees.

Anyway, it doesn't run.

He'll likely leave it for auction.

John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.

NEWS SOURCE