FACTORYVILLE — Florence Hayduk, of Riverside Drive, attended the borough council meeting May 11 to oppose a potential parking ban on both sides of Riverside Drive and Church Street.
“It’s going to greatly affect us,” she said.
According to Council Vice President Bill Edwards, there are safety concerns on the corners of both sides of the streets.
“It’s an ongoing problem we’ve had time and time again with parking,” he said. “At both ends, we’ve had numerous complaints and we need to be able to allow the police the ability to ticket cars right on the corners.
“There are other issues on other streets and I understand we can’t put no parking on all the streets. I’m just trying to think of the safest thing we can do. I want to work to make the community better for everybody.”
Dalton Police Officer Scott Gaughan added there are additional concerns associated with emergency vehicles.
“The whole entire road is a hazard,” Gaughan said. “If there are cars on the road, you can’t fit an apparatus down the road.”
Borough Solicitor Paul Litwin assured members of council they can legally restrict parking in the proposed areas.
“A police officer went out and made sure whatever areas would be recommended to be designated as no parking met the requirements,” Litwin said.
Borough President Chuck Wrobel suggested taking a further look at the potential for banning parking on the roads.
“I think we should revisit it with the street committee and see if there are any changes we can do to rectify it,” he said. “We’ll work on the situation and come up with some solution.”
Wrobel added due to the design and geography of the borough, residents need to share the roadways.
“We have to realize this is a small town and the streets are all narrow,” he said. “There has to be give and take all along the way.”
Litwin suggested the possibility of the borough having a traffic engineer assess the situation.
Members of Factoryville Borough Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15 at borough hall, 161 College Ave.
