Last week’s snowstorm left roughly a foot of snow in front of most Carbon County homes, but outside Janel Wetzel’s home in Lansford, the total reached several feet.

Since Friday, Wetzel has had a large mound of snow in front of her house along West Ridge Street, spilling onto her sidewalk, blocking her gate and driveway.

“The borough took all the snow from Ridge Street and dropped it in front of our property and the adjacent property,” she said.

In towns like Lansford, where nearly every foot of curb is needed for parking, snow can’t just be plowed, it has to be removed.

A bigger snowfall makes it even more difficult.

And while most of Lansford’s parking spots have been cleared in the days following the storm, the staging areas for removal, large piles, are causing headaches for some residents.

On the same street, but across town from Wetzel’s home, Taylor Paton had her garage blocked by another large pile.

For Paton, a single mom, parking in front of her garage helps with getting her kids from the car to the house. It also frees up on-street parking for her neighbors.

“I have two small kids, it really is an inconvenience for me,” she said.

Robert German said a large pile of snow left early Thursday made it difficult for him to pull out of his driveway. He was still waiting for the pile to be removed Monday.

“Every time we try we almost get hit,” he said.

Paton and Janel said they’ve emailed and messaged the mayor, and called the borough office. They both said they were told that the borough has completed its snow removal operations from the storm.

I called borough hall today and they told me it’s my responsibility to move the snow,” Paton said.

All of them said they’ve lived in their homes for multiple winters and never had snow piled outside their homes before.

Council President Bruce Markovich said despite the information from the borough office, the piles will be removed. He didn’t know the time frame.

Markovich said that large snowfalls create additional snow removal challenges, which take additional time to clear.

“They’ll only be there temporarily. We had to open the roads, we had to pile it somewhere. We can’t remove it all in the same day,” Markovich said.

Lansford has many blocks with no driveways. Most of the homes were built in the days of the Model T, not today’s multicar households.

Parking is a challenge year-round, and snow makes it much more difficult. There are very few places for people to move cars during snow removal.

Bringing in contractors to speed up the process can cost the borough tens of thousands of dollars for a single storm.

Because the storm was the first of the season, the borough capped the amount it would spend on contractors at $5,000. Markovich said they have already reached that cap.

“We have to stretch our limited budget, and get the streets open on a limited budget,” he said.

The borough’s full-time road crew workers have been working overtime alongside part-time workers through the weekend to clear parking spaces throughout much of the borough.

Others on Ridge Street said the piles aren’t much of a problem. Len Benek said he recalled piles stretching the entire block sitting for more than a week following large storms in the ’90s.

“For the little amount of money the town has, they’re doing a good job,” Benek said.

Wetzel said parking is not her primary concern. She’s concerned about kids getting hurt while playing on the pile, and the safety hazard of not having clear access to her home.

She went back and forth on calling the borough to inquire about when the pile would be removed. But she decided to call after realizing that the pile was preventing her from complying with a borough ordinance requiring residents to clear their parking spaces and sidewalks of snow and ice.

“I understand we got a significant amount of snow. Lansford’s a tiny town, we don’t have many resources, but I don’t understand why they’re not doing anything,” Wetzel said.