ROGERSVILLE — Downtown Rogersville apartment dwellers and courthouse employees will soon have to find a place for long-term parking other than three streets that local merchants want reserved for short-term customer parking.
The Rogersville Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a resolution Tuesday evening setting a two-hour limit for parking on Main Street, as well as sections of Church Street and Depot Street between Main and Washington streets.
Mayor Jim Sells said some local merchants had contacted him with concerns about street parking around their businesses being taken up for long periods of time by apartment residents and courthouse employees.
“We’ve got people living in apartments who are parking on Main Street when they’ve got available parking behind (their building) and they should be parking where they belong,” Sells said.
Chamber of Commerce Director Nancy Barker said she too has received complaints about at least two vehicles that stay parked on Main Street 24 hours a day and another on Church Street with expired tags that hasn’t moved for about a month.
Barker said the parked cars also proved to be an impediment during last week’s monthly Main Street “Cruise-In” event.
“We’re also having an issue with county office (employees) parking either on Main Street or Depot Street. One of the issues that presents, especially for U.S. Bank, is their front entrance is their handicapped entrance, and people can’t park there because parking places are already taken up by 8 a.m. before they even open their business.”
Sells said signs will be ordered displaying the new time limit, and as soon as the signs arrive the city will issue public notices as to when the parking time limit takes effect.
The fine will be covered under the city’s existing parking ordinance and will be $10 per offense.
“It won’t do any good if it’s not enforced,” Alderman Philip Beal said.
“It will be enforced,” Sells replied.
In other business Tuesday the BMA:
•Received a petition from Hill Street resident Bob McCracken asking for speed tables to be placed on his street to impede speeders. McCracken said Hill Street has substantial pedestrian traffic, as well as children playing, and cars routinely exceed the posted 20 mph speed limit.
Alderman Wayne Slater who oversee the street department said he will investigate the situation with Police Chief Doug Nelson and come up with a solution that may include speed tables.
•Approved the second of three required readings of the 2012-13 fiscal year budget ordinance, as well as an ordinance maintaining the current property tax rate of $1.67 per $100 of assessed property value. The third and final reading and a public hearing are scheduled for June 28 at 5 p.m.
•Approved the closing of downtown Main Street to traffic on July 6 at 4 p.m. for the next monthly “Cruise-In” car show event.