Park area resident questions parking ban - Letter to the Editor

Editor:

If the proposal to park on the North side of Avenue E is passed……..

Every person who has a picnic or event in the Fahey Shelter in Old Settlers Park will be carrying all food and supplies ACROSS Avenue E traffic if they are fortunate enough to find a parking spot even close with the large apartment house who has several cars of their own to park in front of their residences.

I know what it is like to live on Avenue E, across from the park, and I feel lucky we will not be having neighbors across the street and their guests parking in front of our house every day of the year. I think it would cause hard feelings between neighborhood friends to not be able to park in front of their OWN residence if their neighbor across the street are parked in front of their house.

If this survey was taken during construction on Avenue H, then the data is questionable. There were way too many semis, concrete trucks, heavy equipment vehicles using Avenue E which should never have been traveling in a residential area - as well as the vehicles used to driving 40 mph on Avenue H.

We now have a bypass with several exits into town that should have been used to reroute traffic during construction. That traffic has significantly decreased since Highway 61/Avenue H has re-opened. Avenue E was widened once in 2000 – but it was never meant to be a thoroughfare for highway traffic. Nor should Avenue F which badly needs resurfacing.

If it is still not wide enough by 4’ you should not plan to use it as it is what it is – NOT QUALIFIED. You could lower the speed limit to 20 mph to discourage highway traffic OR make AVENUE E ONE WAY GOING EAST out of town. This was apparently the reason Avenue G was made one way to still allow traffic to park in front of all the shops in our main street district. Then you could focus on Avenue F improvements. Everyone could still park and reckless drivers would have more room to drive responsibly without hitting pedestrians or vehicles parked on either side of the street.

This would be a permanent decision folks and as members of Old Settlers Association, we are strongly opposed to this proposal as most of those who attend our summer concerts are seniors who need all the close parking spaces around
the park.

Thanks to Tom Schultz for taking a step back and questioning if this is in the best interests of the property owners who live along Avenue E, the children going to their bus stop with no stop light to cross safely as they had before,
and people that use the City Parks for their special events. And especially for residents who will have shared parking in front of their homes if they live on the North side of Avenue E. ONE WAY would be both safer and more practical.

With covid people are reluctant to go to a crowded room – we just want to be heard.

JIM AND SHERYL DECKER – 427 Avenue E