Council votes to prohibit parking that causes downtown bottlenecks
By KIP BURKE news editor

In Monday night's regular August meeting, the Washington City Council voted to eliminate two downtown traffic bottlenecks by banning parking on parts of Spring and Court Streets starting September 1.

In a 4-2 vote, the council approved the recommendation of the Streets, Buildings and Grounds Committee of the council, which read, "In an effort to eliminate several dangerous situations in our community, the Streets, Buildings and Grounds Committee moves that we prohibit on-the-street parking on both sides of Spring Street from Liberty Street to The Square, and on Court Street from The Square to North Alexander Avenue."

The committee also prohibited "U-turns on Court Street eastbound into the Post Office parking." The city is sending a letter to merchants explaining the changes.

"We've had problems on Spring Street when emergency vehicles just can't get past," said Councilman Pamela Eaton, "plus the sidewalks are very narrow and there have been several wrecks from people pulling out from behind those parked cars."

The intersection where Court Street comes into The Square is now bustling with new business, Eaton said, but the cars parked on the south side of Court Street and in front of the courthouse made the street dangerously narrow, especially since the three-way intersection has no stop or yield signs for any traffic.

Councilman Edward Pope Jr., who voted against the parking ban, said that he had studied the problem at length, and he wanted to get more merchant input. "I want to consider the merchants affected, and get their input, rather than just hit them with a no-parking sign."

Eaton said that letters would go out to the downtown merchants in advance of the September 1 change.

Councilman Ames Barnett, the second opposing vote on the issue, said that he, too, wanted to consider the impact on the business booming downtown. "I'm concerned about the impact on Court Street businessmen like John Horton, where his customers will park."

The parking ban also includes prohibiting eastbound drivers on Court Street from taking what amounts to a near U-turn into the narrowly spaced diagonal parking in front of the post office.

In other committee action, the Building and Grounds Committee recommended to the council that yard waste crews work four 10-hour work days, collecting yard waste on a new schedule in an effort to conserve fuel yet continue to provide needed services. The workers are fully in favor of the new schedule, Eaton said.

The council agreed to look at the new schedule after 90 days to see if it met both conservation and customer service goals during that time.

Under the new plan, yard waste collection for the area east of The Square and Spring Street will be done on Tuesdays, while collection for the area to the west of The Square will be on Wednesdays. Furniture and other items will be picked up city-wide on Thursdays and Saturday mornings, with work orders done on Mondays and Saturday mornings.

Washington citizens may call City Hall at 706-678-3277 to place work orders, City Administrator Mike Eskew said.

Eskew also reported that the city had received notice of an EPA water quality violation when recent tests showed insufficient chlorine in one water line, resulting in the presence of a small amount of coliform bacteria. "This is not fecal coliform," Eskew emphasized. "It was bacteria resulting from insufficient chlorine in one line."

The EPA notice said that coliform bacteria are common in the environment and are generally not harmful, and allows five percent of the tested samples to contain the bacteria. Two or more samples tested positive during the month of July, the report said. A complete copy of the EPD report is elsewhere in this issue of The News-Reporter.

The council approved the forwarding to the state DCA of the city's draft Community Assessment and Community Participation Program components of the Washington- Wilkes Joint Comprehensive Plan.

After months of discussion, meetings, and public input, the council passed a group of four new ordinances. The new ordinances passed authorize the council to take action concerning the abatement of nuisances, the licensing of peddlers, a reduction of the number of nonconforming land uses, and the authori- zation for the Historic Preservation Commission to prevent buildings from undergoing destruction by neglect.

"We've discussed the need for these ordinances at great length, and gotten public input at forums," said Eaton, "and now it's time to move forward."

The council also voted to accept a new city permit fee schedule, and Mayor Willie Burns appointed Barbara Hearn to the Mary Willis Library Board.

Councilman Nathaniel Cullars, with Councilman Pope in agreement, brought up the continuing problems city subscribers have with irregular service and unwatchable channels on Comcast Cable, and asked the city administrator for help to "turn up the heat on Comcast."

At the start of the meeting, OMI's John J. Scott and regional business manager David Moore addressed the council, inviting them to dinner September 12 as part of a OMI regional meeting to be held in Washington. The meeting will bring 60 or more people to the city for the September 10-13 weekend.

During OMI's meeting, managers will be doing clean up and restoration work to Ft. Washington Park, Moore said, in an effort "to give back to the communities we serve."

Ashley Barnett, Tourism Director, passed out an extensive list of upcoming fall and winter events, and told the council that new signs directing visitors to downtown businesses were now on hand and would be put up soon.

Ed Pope III, speaking for the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, said that the Chamber is up to 211 members and held a very successful Chamber After Hours with some 90 local business people in attendance. A ribbon cutting was set for a new insurance agency, Johnson and Jones Insurance on East Robert Toombs at Jefferson Street, at 11 a.m. Friday, August 15.

Pope also invited volunteers to a Mule Day organizing meeting Monday night, August 18 at 5:30.

Councilman Eaton issued an invitation to the DDA meeting set for August 21 at 8:30 a.m. at Farmers State Bank, and Councilman Rev. G.L. Avery pointed out several street lights were out in the city, but it was unclear where.

Monday night's meeting was marked by numerous requests from the audience for the councilmen to speak up, since much of the discussion was inaudible, muffled, or unclear.

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