BOARDMAN Public to hear of possible parking changes

Trustees are open to hearing residents' concerns about parking bans.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- If a township plan becomes reality, residents on 160 township streets will no longer be able to park along the road.
Trustees voted this week to notify the public of that plan through newspaper advertisements listing the streets where the restriction would be implemented.
After the notice runs, a special meeting will be scheduled, likely late next month, when trustees plan to vote on the restriction.
Curt B. Seditz, township administrator, said the additional time will enable people opposed to the idea to voice their concerns.
The 160 streets where parking will be prohibited are 22 feet wide or narrower, he said. Of those, 50 streets are less than 15 feet wide.
Firetrucks, police cars, road crews, ambulances and school buses have difficulty navigating the narrow streets with cars parked on one or both sides.
Public hearings
The decision follows several public hearings in which residents of some of the streets gave their views on the idea. Some residents talked of concerns for children's safety.
Others worried a fire engine wouldn't be able to get to a fire at their house because neighbors' cars cluttered the street.
The township informed the residents of the streets to be discussed at the public hearings, but parking on others not covered by the hearings also will be eliminated under the plan.
That's one of the reasons Trustee Kathy Miller voted against it.
"People were never informed of all of the streets where this was going to be done," she said.
Miller also said that during the public hearings, people talked about the need for some provision to allow street parking for parties and family gatherings. "This doesn't address that," she said.
Miller also said the cost of $50,000 for the signs plus the labor to install them troubles her.
Trustees Tom Costello and Elaine Mancini voted in favor of the notification. Costello said the 19 streets covered in public hearings are those between Market and Erie streets where firetrucks or snowplows haven't been able to get through because of parked cars.
Trustees then realized they couldn't restrict parking on just those streets because of their narrow width without imposing it on all of the township streets of that width, he said. The vote this week was just to notify residents, Costello said.
Residents' role
"They can come in and voice their concerns, their opinions and their thoughts," he said.
If the majority of residents of a particular street are radically opposed to the parking ban, trustees likely won't impose it on that street, Costello said.
"But we have safety concerns," he said. "That's what this is all about."
Seditz said that if the parking prohibition is imposed, it will be a few months before it's enforced on all of the streets. It will take 30 days after it's passed for the restriction to take effect. After that, signs must be posted. By law, the parking ban can't be enforced until the signs are erected, the administrator said.
Residents retain the right to petition the township to change the parking on their streets. Signatures from at least 51 percent of the property owners are required to do that.