Washington may close road behind city hall, fire station

WASHINGTON — Municipal officials will soon consider barring a stretch of South Third Avenue behind Washington City Hall to through-traffic, after staff raised concerns about driving safety in the alley which functions as a parking lot for municipal vehicles and employees.

City Engineering Tech and Safety Director Keith Henkel said a minor accident between two city vehicles on the strip of roadway had led to a review by members of a public safety committee, which found the street was a frequent site of close calls, especially during high-traffic hours at the nearby middle school.

“We feel that that portion has had a change of use, and it is now used more as a parking lot than a through-street,” Henkel said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. “We have several blind spots, we have people backing out from both sides and we typically have people going through at a very high rate of speed. We don’t feel this is a matter of if, but a matter of when we’re going to have a serious accident back here.”

Henkel said the suggestion had support from the city’s emergency response departments, and Fire Chief Brendan DeLong endorsed the plan in a letter included with Tuesday night’s meeting materials. The city’s police and fire departments share a structure with city hall.

Members of the city council said they were open to the idea as well, although Fran Stigers said he worried the closure would prove unenforceable.

“I agree with what you’re trying to do, but how are you going to do it?” Stigers said. “I hate doing ordinances that we can’t enforce.”

Still, Henkel said closing the through-street would protect the city from liability if a crash happens behind its building, and would likely reduce traffic anyway.

“I’m hoping that most of the people that see the signs obey the signs,” he said.

Henkel added that a closure wouldn’t stop staff parking or other “official city business” in the alley. It would only close the street to vehicles passing through.

Decision-makers would have to iron out one point of semantics to follow through with Henkel’s suggestions: determining legal language of whether the alley should be “vacated” or “closed.”

City Attorney Kevin Olson recommended the latter.

“The best thing to do would be to close it, which I think we need to do by resolution,” he said. “If you vacate it, then I think you have to have (utilities) move because by law, they have the right to be in any public street … closing the street, they’d still have access to it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com