When traveling on snow-covered roads, an open parking spot is a welcome asylum. But finding that parking spot in State College may not be easy.

According to a State College Borough ordinance, it is illegal for someone to park a vehicle or to allow a vehicle to remain parked on the paved portion of a street when snowfall reaches a depth of 3 inches.

But there is no penalty for a first violation and notification is sent in the mail. Each subsequent violation warrants a fine between $2 and $10 and the cost of prosecution, or a maximum of five days imprisonment.

After the accumulated snow has been cleared, it is legal to park in those areas, according to the ordinance.

Lee Lowry, director of public works for State College, said his crews begin plowing when the snow level reaches a height of 2 inches and the snowfall persists.

After it stops snowing, Lowry said it takes his crews about eight to 10 hours to dig out all of those areas.

Although Lowry heads the plowing of parking lots downtown, Tom Harmon, University Police Services director, monitors the snow plowing on campus.

"Luckily, the cleanup has been helped greatly by the fact that the students weren't here," Harmon said.

Bruce Kline, University parking director, said the only lot that usually gets plowed is Parking Lot 44, the commuter parking lot south of Beaver Stadium. The remaining parking lots are plowed in no particular order.

He added that because students were home for semester break and most of the lots were vacant, all lots were plowed so students could park when they returned.

But if another snowstorm hits, the University has special winter parking regulations.

Students are permitted to park overnight in many faculty parking spaces when there is no snow, Harmon said. But when snow accumulates during the day or evening, or when a snowstorm is predicted to occur, students must move their vehicles to a student parking lot other than Parking Lot 44 by midnight.

According to student parking rules and regulations, any registered student vehicles that are parked overnight in faculty spaces when snow restriction regulations are in effect will be issued a $20 ticket.

But Kline said he believes the University has to be somewhat lenient on other parking regulations under snowstorm conditions.

"When they can't see the lines, people park helter-skelter," Kline said, but added that he hopes students will park in a way that will maximize the number of spaces available given the conditions.