VERGENNES — Despite making advance efforts to warn residents and visitors about the city’s December-through-March ban on overnight on-street parking — efforts that included issuing warnings on Dec. 1, the first night of the ban — Vergennes police ticketed and/or ordered towed a number of vehicles during the ban’s first week.
By the end of those seven days, however, car owners seemed to have gotten the message: Vergennes police ticketed nine cars and ordered three of them towed, all by Dec. 5.
On Dec. 3, city police had two cars towed from Main Street and a third vehicle removed from Bowman Road. On each of the next two nights, police ticketed three cars around the city.
The ban extends nightly from 2:30 to 6:30 a.m.
In other incidents between Dec. 1 and 7, Vergennes police:
•  On Dec. 1 dealt with a parking problem on Comfort Hill.
•  On Dec. 1 accepted a bike that had been found on Mountain View Lane by a resident of that street; the resident also reported a bike had been stolen from his home.
•  On Dec. 1 checked the welfare of an elderly School Street resident, who was found to be fine.
•  On Dec. 1 were told by a Main Street resident that a valuable antique item had been stolen from his apartment.
•  On Dec. 1 were told a vehicle was partially blocking Main Street, but found nothing.
•  On Dec. 2 went to the Otter Creek basin area to check out a report of gunshots and told two teens who said they were duck hunting there that shooting is illegal within city limits.
•  On Dec. 3 dealt with a parking problem in Booth Woods.
•  On Dec. 3 warned a driver of an overweight truck not to travel on MacDonough Drive.
•  On Dec. 5 while operating a safety checkpoint with Department of Motor Vehicles personnel on Route 7 just outside Vergennes ticketed the driver and owner of a tractor-trailer unit, Edward Alberini, 55, of Northbridge, Mass., for possession of marijuana, a federal charge that police said includes a $622 fine and an immediate 24-hour license suspension.
•  On Dec. 5 took a report of a phone computer scan in which a caller posing as a Microsoft tech said he had been remotely alerted of problems with a resident’s computer and then assumed remote control of the computer before asking for $200 to fix it.
•  On Dec. 5 issued a no-trespass order to a disorderly youth at the Boys & Girls Club on School Street.
•  On Dec. 6 heard from a clerk at the Small City Market that a male had become disorderly when he was not allowed to buy cigarettes because of inadequate identification; he was gone when police arrived.
•  On Dec. 7 were told a firearm was stolen from a vehicle parked on School Street.
•  On Dec. 7 calmed an argument between a staff member and resident of the North Street nursing home.
•  On Dec. 7 went to Waltham to help Vermont State Police with a reported suicide attempt.