SPRINGFIELD — "Ask and you shall receive. That looks like a crappy sidewalk to me," Springfield Police Officer Mark Kenney said as he turned his cruiser onto Page Boulevard.

Kenney, a member of the Springfield Police Ordinance Unit, spent Wednesday driving around his sector in East Springfield looking for properties where the sidewalks had not been shoveled.

He did not have to drive for very long.

Pulling up to a house on Page Boulevard near St. James Boulevard, he spied a sidewalk covered in show and reached for his citation book. One $50 ticket coming up.

"It's a $50 fine and if you don't pay it, it gets attached to your property taxes," he said.

Kenney was one of 10 officers with the Ordinance Unit who spent the day enforcing the city's sidewalk ordinance,which requires residents and property owners to shovel walks within 24 hours after the end of a snowstorm.

The 24-hour grace period following Monday's storm expired at about 8 p.m. Tuesday. The Ordinance Unit began enforcing it first light Wednesday morning.

Sgt. John Delaney, head of the Ordinance Unit, said most city residents and property owners shovel their walks. He estimates 10 percent ignore the shoveling ordinance.

"That 10 percent causes problems," he said. The unit has issued around 200 citations over the last two weeks.

"Most people care. Most people shovel their walks, they shovel around fire hydrants," he said. "But there are those that don't."

Those who don't shovel get ticketed, he said. If the walk is for a vacant property or is owned by a bank, they will track down the owners and fine them, he said.

"Someone is responsible for the property, even if its city owned," he said.

That's in addition to issuing citations to car owners who ignore the city's emergency parking ban. The ban remains in effect, as the city continues to clear streets from the recent storm.

A few moments before issuing the sidewalk violation on Page Boulevard, Kenney had just written a parking ban violation for a car on Santa Barbara Street.

The $50 ticket was the fifth he has written to the same car since the parking ban was put in place on Monday. He said that on one of the tickets, he even included a hand-written note:

"Please don't park here or I will have to tow your car."

After each ticket, the owner comes out and removes it from the windshield, but then continues to park in the same spot.

"Here we are again. Same street, same car," he said. "I feel like I'm in that movie' 'Groundhog Day.' "

The same car now has $250 in tickets. Kenney said if he sees it again, he'll call for a tow truck.

Towing a car is a time-consuming thing, he said. It involves up to 30 minutes of waiting for the tow-truck driver to show up. It's easier for everyone if people would just park where they are supposed to, he said.

"We don't want to be out here busting people's chops," he said. "We're all in the same boat. Everyone's got to do their part."

Moments after Kenney placed the ticket on the windshield, he was flagged down by a woman a few houses down the street who wanted to thank him for ticketing her stubborn neighbor.

"She messes up the street every damn time. The buses can't get down the street," the woman said. "Every time. It's not right."

Kenney said when most people get a ticket, they correct their behavior. A $50 fine is enough to get most to follow the parking ban or shovel their sidewalk.

But sometimes not.

He estimates he has had 10 cases this winter where a resident has been fined repeatedly for not shoveling a walk. Each time he writes a ticket, he follows up in a few days to see if the walk has been shoved. If not, then it's another ticket.

"I'm not saying it's got to be a four-foot wide path. I'm not saying it has to be perfect," he said. "I don't need to be able to eat off it. Just put the effort into it. Try. Care."