BOARDMAN Narrow streets concern officials

Trustees will meet with residents of the streets.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Township officials are concerned that parking on certain streets here may hinder the ability of safety vehicles to get through in an emergency.
Fire Chief James Dorman said firefighters and EMTs were en route to an emergency medical call earlier this year when they were stopped four houses short of the call location because the emergency trucks could not get past parked cars. He said two cars had parked directly across from each other on the street, leaving little room between.
Dorman said that, in this case, emergency personnel were still close enough to the home to reach the individual quickly, but that the department may not be as fortunate in the future.
Road Superintendent Gary Dawson said the road department has encountered situations in which snowplows were unable to get down a narrower street because of parked cars. In those situations, he said, road crews would return later with a smaller truck to finish plowing the street.
List of streets
Fire Inspector Jim McCreary compiled a list of township streets that might be too narrow for emergency vehicles to maneuver on if people park cars on both sides of the street. Dorman said all of the streets on the list are about 21 feet wide.
"This has not been an ongoing problem, but something that we have been made aware of and wanted to bring to the attention of trustees to see if they wanted to do something directly or go to the residents of those streets and raise awareness of the problem," said Dorman.
Trustee Tom Costello and Dorman both feel the best course of action would be to limit parking on those streets to one side of the road only, but they want the residents to have a say in the matter. Costello said trustees, right now, just want residents to know there is a potential problem.
"I worry about the safety of both the residents and safety personnel. It seems to me the appropriate thing to do is to restrict parking on one side of the road, but I feel very strongly that the residents should have input," Costello said.
Trustees will likely schedule meetings with residents on the listed streets in the future.
jgoodwin@vindy.com