More Unlimited Parking For Downtown
WARSAW — Additional unlimited parking for employees of downtown businesses and residents will soon be available. Members of the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission voted to remove12 spaces from the reserved parking area in the city parking lot and make them unlimited parking at today’s meeting, Aug. 5.
Dana Hewitt, parking control officer, checked on the city lot, between Indiana, Buffalo and Jefferson streets. That lot has 32 spaces marked for two-hour parking, 36 spaces for unlimited parking and 74 spaces reserved (a payment of $90 for six months). Hewitt, after being approached by individuals, found only 40 of the 74 reserved spaces have been rented for the next six months.
He proposed the unlimited spaces be increased to 60 spaces and the reserved spaces be reduced to 50. Mayor Joe Thallemer noted he had been told at the first of the year all reserved parking spaces were rented, but noted if the lack of use of those spaces has been consistent, he was all for opening up space to provide parking for larger employers downtown.
Jeremy Skinner, city planner, stated had conducted a parking count twice, at different times, during the spring. He found parking was always available in the 150 downtown 2-hour parking spaces, with the 50-60 unlimited spaces consistently full. He stated a lot of individuals appear to be opting not to use what is available, while others appear not wanting to parallel park. Hewitt’s findings were also noted stating he found in a week most of the unlimited spaces were consistently full around town, with some two-hour spaces available all day long.
It was suggested the change be made, monitoring how quickly the spaces are used. “If we get more request for reserved spaces we can change it back,” Thallemer stated.
Meeting With INDOT
Upgrades to traffic signals on US 30 was noted during the meeting. Lt. Kip Shuter stated conversation has been held with the Indiana Department of Transportation regarding the length of the traffic light at Parker and US 30. “It is bad at any time of the day,” he stated.
Some changes were made when the new left turn signal was added on US 30, but time was removed from the Husky/Parker street direction, moving traffic quicker off US 30.
Shuter stated Eric Miller, a district engineer, reported with the new signalization box installed, data will be collected and a review made. There is an indication the length of the signal will be increased from 80 seconds to 100 seconds.
Skinner asked if there could be a meeting with INDOT, once data is collected and before any changes are implementing, allowing the city input if the plan would work. “Nothing will change unless we get more time at Parker Street,” said Skinner, adding “Parker and 30 is a colossal failure. We need to get in front of INDOT and make it work.” Skinner added “it is beyond failure at this point. It (the intersection) does not meet any of their criteria. It’s not working.”
It was suggested a traffic count on Parker/Husky Trailer and Patterson Road be conducted. Skinner mentioned there was an agreement with Mendard’s to do a traffic count.