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Show Centerville Council studying city parking By TOM HARALDSEN CENTERVILLE If Centerville Center-ville 's parking ordinance were enforced en-forced the way it is written, extended ex-tended parking on city streets would be illegal year round. That's not how it's operated in the past, and city council is studying ways to bring procedures and policies together in the area of parking. During city council meeting rT- 1 . t mcsuay, me orainance was discussed dis-cussed at length. According to ordinance 1 1-343-G, a vehicle cannot can-not be parked on any street for longer lon-ger than an hour "between the hours of 12 midnight and 6 a.m., except for physicians during emergency calls, or fire equipment, equip-ment, police cars or other emergency vehicles." The ordinance ordi-nance also prevents vehicles from being parked for more than "a consecutive con-secutive period of 18 hours," with those previously mentioned being the exceptions. The ordinance has only been enforced en-forced between Nov. 15 and March 15, as a way of helping with snow removal during winter months. Most communities in Utah have similar ordinances enforced only in winter, but in the past, there has been some suggestion made that the Centerville ordinance be enforced en-forced year round. City administrator David Hales presented to council a list of reasons why year round enforcement enforce-ment might be appropriate. These include snow plowing the winter, win-ter, safety of children who might dart out from behind parked cars (though admittedly this shouldn't be a problem between midnight and 6 a.m.), burglaries (police officers often look at vehicles parked at night to determine if they are "suspicious" in nature), and traffic flow. The latter point seems to be the most significant argument for year round enforcement. One possible optional change to the ordinance would apply to large recreational vehicles, trailers, boats and semi-trucks. Much of the discussion centered around those types of motor vehicles, and council coun-cil ended the debate by asking Mayor Dean Argyle, Mr. Hales and Police Chief Jim Oswald to study the issue and come back with a recommendation for changes. "It's possible that we may amend the language of the ordinance ordi-nance to pertain to year around enforcement en-forcement for only RV's and similar simi-lar large vehicles," Mr. Hales explained. ex-plained. "We are seeking input from the residents of the city, and hope they'll call us with their ideas and views." |