By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Finding a parking space near the 300 block of North Sandusky Avenue will get a bit easier in the near future.
The Bucyrus Traffic Commission approved a motion Friday morning to add nine spaces along East Mary Street. The nine spaces will be added on the north side of East Mary Street between North Sandusky Avenue and North Walnut Street. Zoning Administrator John Rostash said the plans include adding an eight-foot wide parking lane on the north side of the street and adjusting the east- and west-bound traffic lanes to be 10-feet wide.
“This would help immensely,” stated Chris Gasuras, the owner of Little Athens Greek Restaurant and the person who brought the limited parking issue before Bucyrus City Council last week.
Councilman Bill O’Rourke seemed to argue against adding additional parking spots and reducing lane widths. Instead, O’Rourke wanted to see a turn lane added to East Mary Street to reflect the flow of traffic on West Mary Street.
“You go to narrow those lanes down to 10 feet and you get a bus or something coming, the people aren’t going to flow freely through there,” O’Rourke said. “That’s why I suggested the thing about three lanes instead of two.”
Rostash pointed out that adding a turn lane to East Mary Street, which Mayor Jeff Reser believed was not needed, would allow for, at most, five additional parking spots rather than the proposed nine. He added that research he completed through the National Association of City Transportation Officials suggested the 10-foot lanes to maintain safety and the flow of traffic.
“This is legal is what you’re saying by all our codes? So I think we need to accommodate our businesses,” recommended Fire Chief Jay Keller.
“It’s legal and it’s recommended,” confirmed Rostash. “Everything that Mr. O’Rourke is stating, as far as the turn lane, goes against what’s recommended by the national transportation.”
Gasuras, who has driven trucks in Brooklyn, Queens, and Chicago, said the city streets of Bucyrus were not that much of a problem for truck drivers.
“It’s just truck driving. That’s how it works,” Gasuras said. “It’s a tough job, but I’m just saying from my experience that street down there on Mary Street? Gravy.”
“It’s like a pebble in the water, a ripple effect,” Police Chief Dave Koepke said. “This is two blocks from the courthouse, but all the good activity around the courthouse has just created a parking problem. The pressure on parking is everywhere. We need to release the pressure, somehow, somewhere.”
Reser believed parking trumped a turn lane in this particular case and the two chiefs agreed.
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The commission also discussed two-hour parking signs, another issue brought up by Gasuras. The old faded signs had been taken down when the Sandusky Avenue project began.
Reser has repeatedly stated that he did not wish to see parking signs in the downtown area in order to maintain the picturesque scene. He also pointed out that there was not enough in the budget for a meter maid or parking meters.
“Over two-hour parking isn’t high on the list of criminal activities,” Reser stated. He suggested having businesses help enforce parking in their areas, instead.
Even if two-hour parking signs were not put back up in the downtown area, Law Director Rob Ratliff said it could still be enforced because it was already a city ordinance, much like how the police department enforces 48-hour parking despite having no signs posted.
Council president Sis Love suggested selecting signs that were a bit more discrete in order to avoid an unsightly downtown. “I think we could look and see for something ornamental like that.”
“Just making the awareness here, with meetings like today, with all the issues you’ve brought up, bringing that awareness to the downtown environment – to our citizens – will definitely help,” said Rostash. “They’re going to see that if this continues then the city is going to have to step to more aggressive measures to handle those parking issues.”
Reser said he will focus on getting downtown businesses onboard with enforcing the parking time limit before any bigger measures are taken.
The mayor presented another idea to increase parking on the side streets: create a one-way loop between Rensselaer and Warren streets. In essence, Warren Street, from Walnut to Poplar, would turn into a one-way street from west to east while Rensselaer would turn into a one-way street from east to west. As the two streets go down to one lane, angled parking could be put in.
“What it does, especially on Rensselaer Street, it allows us to put in more parking,” Reser said. “I know this is a big change and we’re not going to decide anything today on it.”
Koepke said it was an innovative idea that has already been established in Findlay while Love said angled parking is used on the side streets in Port Clinton.
Rostash will be working on different scenarios and various parking angles, and will present it to the Traffic Commission at a later date.
The commission approved posting yield signs on the east and west alley intersection at Cross Street, and four signs at the first blind alley intersection east of Cross Street between John Street and Southern Avenue. A 90-day trial will be tested for no parking on the south side in the 600 block of Ann Street. City ordinances require no parking on the south side of the 700 block, but nothing was established for the next block and, as such, has created issues for drivers attempting to access the street.
The next Traffic Commission meeting has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 3.