Parking, budget top Fenwick WWA topics

By M. Patricia Titus
Staff Reporter

Resident Gail Warburton again asked town officials for help in ensuring the enforcement of restrictions on parking by tractor trailers near her Farmington Street address. Warburton said she’d repeatedly reported illegal parking that she said endangers both drivers and pedestrians on the street, as it blocks the view of those trying to enter and exit the street onto Route 1.

“This is a very, very unsafe situation,” she told the council members present at the WWA.

Warburton said she’d reported such violations at least three times in recent weeks, often on the same drivers, and that verbal warnings were the only censure the police officers had handed out.

“Warnings aren’t working,” she declared adamantly.

Further, Warburton said, once such warnings were issued, the drivers were showing no inclination to correct the situation, with one driver not moving his vehicle for more than 90 minutes after he was given the warning.

Other trucks delivering to local businesses were using their parking lots, Warburton said, with flagrant violators repeatedly using the same illegal spots they’d already been cited for parking in. Warburton said the situation was doubly difficult because verbal warnings didn’t create a paper trail, so officers were likely unaware they were repeatedly giving verbal warnings to the same violators.

Warburton also had concerns about illegal parking by beachgoers at the former Libby’s location that is under plans for development as a residential location on one side and commercial lease on the other.

Mayor Peter Frederick said the town was aware of the problem but was unable to do anything to police the property, since it was private property. He said the problem had come up in the past, and unless a property owner granted the town permission to treat the property as public, and thus patrol it, there was no way for police to cite anyone for illegal parking.

A suggestion that the town might help solve its parking problem by purchasing the lot for paid municipal parking was deemed impractical by Frederick and other council members. He roughly calculated the interest cost on a mortgage for the property at some $100,000 per year — a difficult tab on which to recoup the cost.

Warburton said she was also concerned about the public’s ability to have early input in the town’s budget process. She said she’d heard a number of complaints from other citizens in recent weeks about the lack of cost-cutting efforts by town officials for the draft budget.

She was quick to emphasize that the complaints she was hearing, as well as the suggestions of possible areas to target for cuts (garbage service, lifeguard services and employee health benefits), weren’t her own. Instead, she said some citizens felt it was too intimidating to come to council meetings and speak in public, or to make complaints to town employees at town hall.

Warburton suggested there might be a good use for a “suggestion box” for such low-key input from citizens.

But council members said they didn’t seen the need for a physical suggestion box. They had e-mail, telephones and physical addresses, as well as the various town meetings — all of which were methods for constituents to contact them and give their input, they said.

As for budgeting issues, they reminded Warburton that budget meetings were generally public and encouraged public input from the start of the budgeting season through the winter and spring. She reminded them that many residents are out of the area during the winter, but they again pointed to phone, e-mail and postal mail for input.

Finally, Council Member Martha Keller reminded potential oyster farmers that she is still seeking some 25 locations at which to place oyster spat and thus help clean the bays. Council Member Vicki Carmean said the oyster farming was fun and not much work at all. Indeed, it requires just a spraying-off of the oyster spat every two weeks, they said.