March 29, 2024

Council to hold public meeting regarding parking

Creston City Council will hold a public meeting regarding a potential pilot program for a new parking ordinance immediately after the May 2 council meeting.

The meeting is expected to start around 6:30 p.m. May 2 in the council chambers in the restored Creston Depot. If the council chambers become too full, the meeting will be moved to the congregate mealsite.

“We had a meeting, a few of us, and we have come up with a section of town we want to do a pilot program for parking on one side of the street for a 12-month period to see how it works,” said Steve Wintermute, at-large councilman, during Tuesday’s regular city council meeting.

The proposed area for the pilot program includes Myrtle Street, South Lincoln Street and Peterson Street, and possibly the section of Russell Street that connects all three of those streets along the south border.

The public meeting is scheduled to answer any questions the public might have about the proposed program.

“It’s going to affect those people, so if they would like to have some kind of a public sit-down, that’s fine,” Wintermute said.

If the pilot program is put into place, parking would only be allowed on the east side of Myrtle, South Lincoln and Peterson streets.

“For lack of a better term, it’s the squeaky wheels,” said Terry Freeman, at-large councilman. “A bulk majority of the concerns come from that area. Those streets, it’s an older section of town. So, if you drive through the neighborhoods, the houses are really tight. There’s a lot of houses within that block. You look at other parts of town, the houses are spread out a bit. That’s the primary reason why we’re going to start over there.”

Peterson Street already has no parking signs located on the west side of the street that runs alongside the former Lincoln School building, as children are dropped off and picked up there on a bus route.

So, to make it easy, the council subcommittee looking at the parking issue decided to implement no parking on the west side of all three streets.

However, once the snow removal ordinance goes into effect, parking guidelines will follow the snow removal ordinance.

“That no parking (on the west side of the street) is in effect year round, except during the snow removal season, when that ordinance is in effect,” Freeman said. “You would still go to alternating parking at that point. It’s kind of like the areas uptown where there’s no parking on one side, but once snow removal comes into play, you still alternate within those hours.”

Council members began looking into the idea of a parking ordinance after receiving complaints from residents and emergency responders.

On a 26-feet-wide road, when cars park directly across from each other, it becomes difficult for emergency vehicles to get through on those roads.

“We’re not trying to create pain to any resident. It’s just a matter of public safety,” Freeman said. “When people park side by side on streets and you’ve got an ambulance that’s trying to get to a scene and they have to basically come to a screeching stop and crawl through, making sure they don’t hit something, obviously we can see where that’s going to impact their ability to do their job and potentially impact someone on the other end who needs the help.”

In other city council news:

• The council voted 5-1 in favor of approving a request from Laurie Tebbenkamp, 901 N. Chestnut St., to keep chickens in city limits for her children’s 4-H project.

• The council unanimously approved an engineering services contract with Clapsaddle-Garber for the construction of aircraft turnarounds phase one at Creston Municipal Airport.

• The council unanimously approved the hiring of TJ Parsons as assistant street superintendent.

• The council unanimously approved a temporary street closing by That Bar on Pine Street from Montgomery Street to Mills Street for a bike night event 5 p.m. until midnight Saturday, June 10.