Growing up in Westport, out in the country, there was never a need for a "space saver" after shoveling out snow. I actually didn't even know people did this when it snows until I moved to New Bedford and realized the tension over the issue.

When it comes to parking bans during snowstorms, people become relentless. They shovel out a spot just to claim ownership that's nothing but a temporary facade until it gets sniped by someone else. Hence the dawning age of "spot savers," the most unjustifiable means of saving a spot you just shoveled out. From lawn chairs to teddy bears, I've seen it all and it will never make a single drop of sense.

However, over in Fall River, there's a man with a plan that actually makes sense when it comes to owning your spot. First of all, just to recap the law, it's illegal to have space savers in the first place. You do not own the street, the town or city does, even if your parking spot is right in front of your house, apartment, or place of residence. To leave something in the street to claim ownership is an ordinance violation, yet people will forever continue to throw their sofa out on the sidewalk in the near chance of a parking ban.

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Listen, I get it, city life is not for the weak and when it comes to parking, it's a dog-eat-dog world, everybody for themselves, and I'm here to defend the fact that these new "spot savers" bags could be a good thing for the city.

Standing around four feet tall, these everyday contractor bags can fit a good amount of snow. The idea is to fill the bags with the snow that you want to remove and then recycle them as space savers with the snow still inside. When the storm passes and there's nowhere else to put the snow, these bags could conveniently get picked up and disposed of. After all, it's just water, what's the harm?

Russ Sampson, the creator of this ingenious idea, said he put a patent on the yellow bags and had them ordered and shipped from New York. Sampson buys the bags for .25 cents apiece and then sells the bag for $1 to local stores around the city, who then sell them to the public for $2. If anyone has any interest in these bags, you can pick them up at Royal Liquor on North Main Street and multiple variety stores around the city of Fall River.

"These bags are great and convenient," Sampson said. "You could write your name with a magic marker like 'Jeff's Spot,' but it's self-explanatory and clearly gets the message across that someone shoveled this spot. It's clean, there are no debris, no wood, and if it accidentally blows down the street, it doesn't cause any damage to oncoming cars."

Sampson compares the snow bags to the fall Halloween leave bags with the orange pumpkin face and said that's what led him to come up with the idea.

For more information about the space saver bags, please reach out to Sampson at vsdillies1@gmail.com and start saving your shoveled-out spot for when the next snowstorm hits the SouthCoast.

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