Parking Issues Irk Downtown Steubenville Business Owners | News, Sports, Jobs

Picture by Michael D. McElwain
Steubenville officers are involved about parking situations alongside Fourth Road.

The downtown Steubenville enterprise neighborhood is searching for assist with parking points on Fourth Road.

At Tuesday’s assembly, members of Metropolis Council had been advised drivers are crisscross parking, parking in entrance of hydrants and extra time parking with impunity. The issues are compounded by the absence of a parking enforcement officer.

Metropolis Engineer Mike Dolak reminded council years in the past the downtown had metered parking, however the meters had been eliminated attributable to a big quantity of complaints.

Since then, parking has been capped at two hours, however within the absence of the enforcement officer, “You understand what occurs — all people violates it,” he mentioned.

Dolak mentioned the road could possibly be striped for parking, “however the parking stalls would in all probability be 24 ft lengthy. We’d in all probability lose a few spots, and we’d in all probability need to designate a few spots for handicapped parking.”

He mentioned the striping must be redone yearly and will price no less than $5,000 a yr to repaint.

Dolak advised Councilwoman at giant Kimberly Hahn that Fourth Road isn’t extensive sufficient to do diagonal parking on either side of the road, and even on one aspect it might be problematic.

“If you wish to do diagonal, you would need to go to a one-way road state of affairs,” he mentioned. “You’d in all probability need to convert Fourth Road right into a one-way road … that may be a significant change, so there’d need to be a visitors examine finished.”

Prodigal Daughter Treasures and Trinkets proprietor Mary Ann Freeze urged council to discover a resolution, telling them, “I’ve lots of people who love my store however it’s not sufficient. There needs to be extra folks coming downtown.”

Mayor Jerry Barilla mentioned parking is significant to the survival of companies.

“Individuals drive to buy groceries,” he mentioned. “Subsequently, they want a spot to park. Our companies struggled with this challenge on North Fourth (road) for years.”

In earlier years, clients “would go across the block to see if a parking spot would go open,” Barilla mentioned. “But when not, they might go to a different retailer … the place parking was not a problem.”