North Mankato’s first snow emergency in recent memory caught scores of residents unaware Sunday, resulting in 84 parking citations and 72 vehicles towed.

A similar number of residents successfully scrambled to move illegally parked vehicles Sunday when police officers used air horns and squad car light bars as warnings that citations were being issued, said Police Chief Chris Boyer.

City officials couldn’t recall the last snow emergency in the North Mankato, which until recently had an informal policy of avoiding them whenever possible. Instead of towing parked cars, plow crews would simply return in ensuing days to clear areas where they’d been forced to plow around parked vehicles.

Tough budget times forced the city to reconsider that policy in an effort to reduce staff and fuel costs.

Boyer, who joined the department in 2000, said there haven’t been any snow emergencies during his tenure. But he had plenty of experience with the task — driving from street to street, issuing tickets, dealing with frantic people who discovered their vehicle was being towed — during his previous job as a Mankato officer.

Despite the newness of the experience for North Mankato residents, Boyer didn’t see much difference in reaction compared to residents across the Minnesota River.

“I didn’t see a huge difference in the amount of complaints,” he said.

Some people vented to his officers about the ticketing ($15) and the towing (a charge of $54.50), and he had a couple of calls Monday morning.

“I think the police department kind of went out of their way to assist people,” City Administrator Wendell Sande said of the deliberate attempt to be a bit noisy about the operation to give residents a last chance to abide by the snow-emergency rules.

Residents who followed the rules parked on the even side of lower North Mankato streets Sunday because it was an even-numbered day on the calendar. And law-abiding residents on snow emergency routes (Belgrade, Range, Sherman and the portion of Center south of Belgrade) got their vehicles off of both sides. In upper North Mankato, parking is prohibited on residential streets.

Those who weren’t following the rules suffered the charges and the hassle of picking up their vehicle at the Affordable Towing impound lot.

The city didn’t begin enforcement until 8 a.m. Sunday, after notice appeared in The Free Press, on the city Web site and on local radio stations.

Sande said City Hall received only a half-dozen calls, not all of them complaints, related to the snow emergency. Councilman Billy Steiner, who lives in lower North Mankato, said he hadn’t received the expected outcry from those ticketed and towed.

“I am surprised that we didn’t get any calls or e-mails,” Steiner said.

The city’s actions did prompt a letter to The Free Press by M.L. Williams, a Grant Avenue resident who didn’t get towed but thought the entire exercise was absurd for such a small snowfall.