BOSTON (AP) – City sanitation workers picked up orange cones, lawn furniture and other items Friday to enforce Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s policy that combats the “you shovel it, you own it” unwritten rule for neighborhood parking spaces.

Earlier this week, the first major snowstorm hit the city since Menino first announced the policy in December, and the mayor gave Boston residents a 48-hour grace period before crews began to take parking space holders off the streets.

Some garbage trucks had to make a second run to enforce the policy because of a “communication problem within the agency,” Joseph F. Casazza, the city’s public works commissioner, told the Boston Globe.

He said the process of removing plastic milk crates and folding chairs added an extra 2-1/2 hours, but it did not cost the city extra.

The 48-hour grace period will last longer in some areas because the parking space savers are picked up in neighborhoods during regular trash days, city officials said.

Anna Mathios, a 64-year-old retired school teacher, will have to wait until Wednesday for her East Boston street to be cleared of objects.

“Get rid of them,” she said.

Sophia Aravena, 29, said she hoped the policy would end competition for parking spots among neighbors.

“They’re really crazy,” Aravena said. “They’ll scratch your car or, sometimes, you’ll find tires flat.”

Lee Sprague, 79, of East Boston, said one neighbor will put a barrel on the street at the drop of one snowflake.

“That’s ridiculous. A couple of days, but to keep it out all winter and half into the summer?” he said, but added, “I can see when there’s a lot of snow and you have to shovel. Why let someone who is sitting in there watching television (get your spot)?”

Sanitation workers didn’t trash every space holder, which sometimes included children’s toys and bikes or garbage cans, which crews emptied and put on the sidewalk.

“We aren’t going get blamed for taking (them),” said superintendent of sanitation Elmo Baldassari, referring to the toys.

AP-ES-03-20-04 0532EST