SALEM PARKING Two additional spots available for disabled

The city already had several parking spaces for disabled people downtown.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Disabled visitors to the city's downtown business district are discovering it's easier now to find parking along Salem's main business thoroughfare.
Months after deciding more parking for disabled people is needed downtown, the city administration recently installed two new spaces along East State Street.
The spaces, near the intersection with Lundy Avenue, are the first curbside parking for disabled people in the city's central business district.
There are two spaces on Broadway Avenue, which has diagonal, not curbside, parking. Several more spaces are scattered throughout downtown in municipal parking lots.
But the spaces near East State Street and Lundy Avenue fill a need expressed by some disabled people for curbside spaces close to downtown shops and services.
The other spaces entailed longer walks, which can be problematic for disabled people.
City officials said in March that they hoped to create the curbside spaces in the spring. But city workers got too busy with other chores.
Beating the weather: Service Director Joe Julian said earlier this month that he wanted to get the job done before cold weather set in and prevented the painting of the blue handicapped symbol on the pavement.
The city spent about $250 in materials for the project, Julian said Thursday. City street crews provided the labor.
Julian said he's received no feedback from the public regarding the new spaces. But he noted that people already are using them.
"It's a help for them," Julian said. "We're getting them right in the center of town."