Wayland residents take parking concerns to the city council

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

WAYLAND ? One resident of 4th Street in Wayland compared it to a neighborhood block party as about a dozen residents who call that street home filed into the city council meeting Wednesday night to discuss parking issues on their street.

The residents had been contacted by the city to come to Wednesday?s night meeting after Police Chief Ron Roth spoke to the council at its Aug. 17 meeting, expressing his concern over the street being impassible due to the way vehicles were parking on the street.

At that meeting, the council discussed the possibilities of requiring off-street parking or alternate days.

Citizens present at last night?s meeting, however, were asking for the city to let them resolve the problem themselves.

?I?m not speaking for the whole neighborhood, but I think they?ll mostly agree with this. If everyone tried to park a little north and south, it would fix the problem,? said Joellen Jepson. ?I would just like you to consider letting our citizens on that street to come to a conclusion where we can be respectful of each other and attentive of each other.?

Chief Roth and the council members agreed that since this issue was brought to the residents? attention, it has gotten better and the residents seem to have been making an effort to make the street more passable.

?If you work together, we?ll try to work with you. We won?t bother you, but we would like to be able to get an emergency vehicle down there,? said Mayor Brad Roth.

Besides working among themselves, the residents also asked that the city simply ask them if something needs to be changed.

?I think the big thing is communication,? said Mark Dugger. He told the council that he was partially to blame for parking issues on Thursday nights, as he holds card games at his house. He said he and his guests would have no problem with Chief Roth knocking on the door and asking them to move their cars over.

Another solution mentioned was possibly widening the streets in the future, and Mayor Roth said that the city would look into it next year.

?If you people try to get along with us and we try to get along with you, we could widen that street and oil and chip out a little further,? said Mayor Roth. ?If you people could keep the street passable from now until next spring or next summer when we do the streets, we?ll try to help you get it up to shape.?

As a short-term solution, the city discussed painting lines on the road to serve as a guide for parking.

Between residents? cars and business vehicles, there is an estimated 20-22 cars that live on 4th Street.

In other business, the city council met with representatives from the WACO Athletic Boosters, who presented rough drafts for a concession stand/restroom building project. Approval from this project would come from the WACO school board, but the city is needed to hook up utilities to the building. The city will need to get back to the athletic boosters in October.

The project is for a 30 by 35 foot building that will serve as a concession stand for softball, baseball, track and football. It will also have ADA-compliant restrooms, which the current concession stand does not have.

The total project cost is estimated at $150,000. The athletic boosters already have $30,000-35,000 in a fund and some minor pledges, and they will be fundraising for the rest of the cost.

The athletic boosters are hoping for approval from the school in October and starting to raise funds in November. Plans are to start construction after the track season and finish by the beginning of the football season in 2012.