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Show Parking Merry-Go-Round Sugar House city police are handing out parking violations tickets freely to violators of the new ordinance against rush hour parking on Highland Drive, but apparently the county sheriff is not even awarethat the No Parking Park-ing signs have been put up on Highland Drive in the county. When the combination city-county city-county ordinance was passed, County Commissioner Lamont Gundersen assured the Highland Strip merchants through Willis G. Carlisle, that the ban would not be enforced for six months. This would give Strip merchants time to arrange offstreet parking for their customers. j The Salt Lake Traffic Engineer's ! office, under the direction of Ray ' Halversen, posted the signs anyhow, any-how, apparently without mentioning mention-ing it to the Commission. Commissioner Gundersen said the signs should be masked for the grace period. Repeated calls from Mr. Carlisle to the traffic engineer's office have resulted in nothing more than buckpassing. Two of Mr. Halversen's assistants and Mr. Halversen himself had assured Mr. Carlisle that they "would check into this and call you back." As of the Independent f press deadline, no one had bother- J ed to pick up the phone to tell Mr. Carlisle and the Highland j Strip merchants where they stood on parking. The Independent reporter fared no better with Sheriff George Beckstead. The sheriff said he would send a man to look into the matter. The reporter asked the sheriff, "Then as of now, if I parked along al-ong the Highland Drive in the restricted re-stricted area, and you came along and saw my parked car, you would have to give me a ticket?" The sheriff answered in some of the best political evasive double-talk double-talk this reporter has heard for some time. From the sheriff's answer, an-swer, I don't know if it's still legal to park on the Highland Strip or not. The whole thing seems to hinge on the sheriff's hrase, "properly posted" signs. Now, the signs are the same in the city as they are in the county. The city police feel they are "properly "pro-perly posted." They give tickets to persons who insist on parking where it says "No Parking." Either the signs in the county should be covered as per authority from the Commissioner, by instructions in-structions from the traffic engineer; engin-eer; or the sheriff's office should be enforcing the ban. Of course, if they do enforce it, there will be questions from the Commission. However, SOMETHING should be done. What we want to know is, who's gonna do it? |