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Show Main Street parking problem aired with state road men Mayor Haymond said it was not too hard to figure out why the Springville rate decreased "It's because a lot less cars were parking there." It was suggested by the commission com-mission that if the council would request a formal hearing on the problem with a federal representative, the State Road Commission would make arrangements ar-rangements for such a meeting. meet-ing. No formal request was made by the council at the meeting and no definite de-cison de-cison was announced. The problem of parallel vs angle parking on Main Street, took up the major portion of the city council meeting Monday Mon-day evening, when four representatives repre-sentatives of the State Road Commission and some 75 interested inter-ested townspeople attended. Elias Strong, member of the five-man State Road Commission, Commis-sion, read a letter to the group from the State Road Commission Commis-sion requesting the mayor and city council to have the angle an-gle parking changed back to parallel parking. He said that in order for the state to get federal money to build highways, high-ways, they must adhere to specifications and parallel parking. Traffic hazard Citizens at the meeting argued ar-gued that parallel parking was a traffic hazard, blocked traffic traf-fic and generally was not wanted by Springville citizens and business houses. They noted no-ted that Springville's Main Street was one of the widest in the state and that the same 1 regulations should not have to apply to every city throughout the state and the United States ' and that cities should work out what is best for their particular particu-lar conditions. i In answer to a statement made by the road commission . visitors, that Springville did not live up to its agreement with the state when ttie islands were placed on Main Street in 1963, Mayor Paul M. Haymond noted that the city did not break the agreement. He charged that the state broke the agreement by not living up to specifications in the road construction. He said when the first course of the paving didn't hold, a second full course was laid down clear to the gutter leaving leav-ing a drop off in some places of two inches. He said this was against specific agreement. He also noted that the agreement to feather the pavement at the edges was not carried out. The mayor stated that the city did its own engineerng and felt that it was safer to use 30 degree angle parking than parallel parking, which he stated caused much confusion to local and passing motorists. Citizens speak Several citizens attending the meeting made comment favoring fa-voring the city's action in returning re-turning angle parking. Harrison Conover pointed out to the state officals that the route Highway 91 takes through the city has "never had one cent of federal money spent on it." He said that the citizens along its route were assessed for the road's construction. con-struction. (Mr. Strong had stated during the meeting that the recent resurfacing and lighting of the street was with state money) . Howard Maycock, chairman of a Chamber of Commerce committee which investigated community feeling on the matter, mat-ter, said the citizens interviewed inter-viewed said they did not want parallel parking. "Why do you try to dictate to us" he asked. Ed Johnston, traffic and planning plan-ning engneer for the state, said that national surveys of where parking was changed from angle to parallel a 40 per cent reduction in accidents usually us-ually occurred. He said that though Springville's experience in parallel parking was very short, a major reduction in accidents ac-cidents occurred. |