Jackson to take second look at parking ban on East Main Street

Wayne Maupin is among a half-dozen Jackson residents who asked the city to revisit an ordinance banning parking on East Main Street.

"Right now, if you have several guests at your home and you don't have an adequate driveway, you park up on the side street or contact a neighbor and park there. It works out, but it's an inconvenience," he said.

City administrator Jim Roach said the residents affected live on East Main Street near Oak Hill Road. He said an ordinance banning parking was approved years ago to accommodate higher traffic volumes from the new Interstate 55 interchange at exit 102.

"We actually put the signs up for no on-street parking a month or so ago," he said. "For a couple of years, it actually had been prohibited by ordinance."

He said the ordinance wasn't enforced while the extension of East Main Street was under construction.

Maupin was one of six residents concerned about parking who attended the city's board of aldermen meeting Monday. He said it was no surprise to see the rise in traffic volume since exit 102 opened. Maupin has lived on East Main Street for five years, in a duplex with a driveway that can accommodate four cars. But he appealed to the board to provide for parking when he and his neighbors have family events.

"It was low-key. We were just respectfully asking them to look at it. They're very responsive, Maupin said.

"Whatever the outcome, we'll accept it and move on," he said.

Joyce Ross also lives in a duplex and said she and her husband don't typically need space beyond their two-car driveway.

"But when my family gets together over the holidays, from 25 to 35 people come, and there's not pace to park," she said.

Ross said she doesn't care which side of the street gets a parking allowance, "as long as we get at least some parking somewhere."

She also told the board she would like to see 18-wheelers now driving through her neighborhood redirected to U.S. 61.

"We have enough traffic going through, with people going to work and people with little kids or walking dogs or senior citizens taking their walks," she said.

Ross, 70, said she plans to be at the board's next meeting, set for May 19.

Mayor Barbara Lohr said the board will make it a study session topic. But she hesitated to predict the aldermen's decision.

East Main Street "is a busy street and will continue to get busier. That was pretty much a given when we first started building Main Street," she said.

The board of aldermen made several decisions Monday, approving the following:

• Jackson Football Park Improvement Project.
• An easement agreement with U. S. Bank National Association, for the East Jackson Boulevard water line replacement project.
• Closing South High Street between Madison and Monroe streets from 8 to 10:30 a.m. May 26 for the American Legion Memorial Day service.
• Closing Strawberry Lane between Nell Green Street and Connie Drive from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 8 for a neighborhood block party, per Becky Harris' request.
• Closing Greenway Drive between Country Club Place and Kimbeland Drive from 4:30 to 9 p.m. June 21 for a neighborhood block party, per Debbie Feiner's request.

"We have a lot of neighborhood block parties," Lohr said. "It is a fairly common thing. ... It's the atmosphere of our town."

Lohr also read a resolution into the record proclaiming May 2, 2008, Marybeth Williams Appreciation Day.

"I feel her loss very personally," she said of the late executive director of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. Lohr said that Williams' sudden death has left a void, but the city will regroup and carry on. "It's hard to get over, but we're real resilient and everyone here is determined that everything is going to be as good as Marybeth would have wanted them to be."

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

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