BERLIN– A request for a parking change on Pitts Street led to a fiery debate during a Mayor and Council Meeting on Monday, July 14.
Bill Outten, owner of Town Center Antiques, and Walt Dennison, owner of Walt’s Train Shop, asked the town to create a 30-minute designated loading zone on the street, citing increased traffic in town.
“It’s gotten so congested that it’s really hard for the dealers to get and out of that area,” Outten said. “I’m looking to maybe find a loading zone in the area where we can actually park that is right by the (Town Center Antiques) door.”
The Pitts Street location of the store has 100 booths, meaning 100 merchants regularly need to park nearby in order to unload items and restock their shelves.
Outten said the new space could be a “neighborhood loading zone” to be used by businesses in the immediate area, including Walt’s Train Shop and Burley Inn Tavern.
“I’m looking for a way to accommodate the loading,” Outten said. “In the wintertime, of course, it’s a different story. I’m looking for May-October (when) it presents itself as an area of concern.”
Roughly a half-dozen unmarked spaces are currently available on the street, which is designated as two-hour parking.
Dennison said one of the major problems on Pitts Street is that merchants and employees park longer than two hours. Residents who live in nearby apartments also use the spaces.
“Nobody can get in and out,” he said. “I have more than 200 pictures I can show you where people who park in the morning are still there in the evening. These are our fellow business people who have offended me because they fight for the spot in front of my store. They have Main Street locations and pull into those spots on a regular basis so they don’t have to walk more than 30 feet to their store.”
Dennison called on the merchants to self-discipline and self-police.
“We have seen a significant amount of congestion,” he said. “The two questions I get asked the most at my own business are where is the bathroom and where can I park in this town?”
The shopkeeper argued that the two-hour parking zone is now obsolete.
“The people we bring into this town now, in my opinion, want to be here longer that two hours,” he said. “You can’t really visit the town the way you should in two hours.”
Dennison tells his customers, “you can park anywhere in this town, because nobody enforces parking.”
“The first people that don’t pay attention to (parking laws) is our merchants, and I’m offended by their doing what they do,” he said. “I believe the Main Street program (should) have as part of their program parking analysis and solution.”
Police Chief Arnold Downing admitted that the town could not give out tickets on Main Street.
“State Highway has already stated that,” he said. “But we can go straight down Pitt Street … and it’s at the discretion of the Council how we want to do it. We could go ahead and make it a one-way street and park on both sides … you could go ahead and designate individual parking spaces for individuals who live here. I think we need to look at the whole big picture.”
Economic and Community Development Director Michael Day said the issue comes up regularly during Merchant Association meetings.
“For the nine years that I’ve been every other month I hear this exact conversation,” he said. “There are certain ones that don’t care about it, and there are other ones that really do try to find other parking and move away. There are certain ones that … they might go for a few weeks doing what we’ve asked them to do, but they’ll slowly creep back into the same habits that Mr. Dennison is talking about – fighting for that parking place as close as they can get right in front of their business. It happens on Broad Street down by Taylor Bank; it happens in the municipal parking lot at the post office.”
Councilmember Troy Purnell favored adding the loading zone, while councilmember Paula Lynch said she wanted to examine the situation further before making a decision.
“Things have changed, and there is always unintended consequence of change,” said Mayor Gee Williams. “Let us take a look at the situation. We’re going to have to do something and I’d rather have the input and support of the business community. There’s going to have to be some cooperation about the parking in some common sense way, because we not going to go down knocking down buildings (that) we built the whole doggone revitalization around.
“We have to look at this creatively,” Williams continued. “Quite frankly I’m glad we have a parking problem. We had a parking problem for eight years, and that was we didn’t have enough cars.”
Earlier during the meeting, transitional housing and emergency food services nonprofit Diakonia thanked the town for its continued support. The organization distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food during the last fiscal year and provided housing for several dozen Berlin and Worcester County individuals and families.
The town agreed to extend its $7,500 grant to Diakonia during the next fiscal year.
“You all stepped up to the plate when it was difficult to do,” said vice president Joel Todd. “We were on the edge of calamity and the money that you gave us may not have seemed like a lot, but it made a big difference. I think in a large part it also challenged some of the larger municipalities to step up to the plate and do their share too.”
A public hearing on town ordinance 2014-03 establishing a stormwater credit fee policy was open and closed without comment. The Council unanimously approved the ordinance allowing nonprofit nonresidential property owners to earn a credit on their current stormwater utility fees provided the make required improvements. The maximum credit is 50 percent.
Ordinance 2014-4 prohibiting food trucks in Berlin was introduced and given a first reading. A public hearing on the ordinance was set for the July 28 Mayor and Council Meeting.
Council voted down a proposed entrepreneur program, offering new businesses six months of rent-free office space in Berlin’s Visitor’s Center.
Day, along with Salisbury University Small Business Development Center Director John Hickman and Worcester County Economic Development Director Bill Badger, had championed the project.
“I don’t want us to just do this and try something,” said councilmember Lisa Hall. “Obviously we haven’t got that right mix in the Visitor’s Center yet. I just have a problem with allowing people to come into a town building that’s paid for by the taxpayers of this town.”
Williams called the proposal, “an idea that has not been fully cooked. “You’re going to be wasting your time until you bring the whole thing together,” he said.
An informal vote to reject the proposal or allow organizers to present a more complete plan effectively terminated the project.
The Council approved a new three-year $74,407.15 phone service contract with Comcast. Town officials met with seven vendors during the five-month search for a new provider. Berlin phone systems had not been upgraded for more than 20 years.
Fifty four lines were purchased, including police department lines, and 40 phones were included in the purchase price. A Comcast official said the computer-driven program would not interfere with the town’s free public Wi-Fi service. The new deal could save the town more than $9,000 each year.
A motion to approve a Government Finance Officers Association request for proposal for development and vendor selection services for a new town financial system also passed unanimously. The $16,800 price tag was between electric, water and sewer departments and the town’s general fund.
“I would call this extremely important to the long-term health of the town,” Williams said.
“We just need to get this right,” said councilmember Dean Burrell. “Getting this right will put us in a much better position to have information that’s going to allow us to do to better job.”
Implementation of the plan should begin by December 2014, and the new system should be in place by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Bill Outten, owner of Town Center Antiques, and Walt Dennison, owner of Walt’s Train Shop, asked the town to create a 30-minute designated loading zone on the street, citing increased traffic in town.
“It’s gotten so congested that it’s really hard for the dealers to get and out of that area,” Outten said. “I’m looking to maybe find a loading zone in the area where we can actually park that is right by the (Town Center Antiques) door.”
The Pitts Street location of the store has 100 booths, meaning 100 merchants regularly need to park nearby in order to unload items and restock their shelves.
Outten said the new space could be a “neighborhood loading zone” to be used by businesses in the immediate area, including Walt’s Train Shop and Burley Inn Tavern.
“I’m looking for a way to accommodate the loading,” Outten said. “In the wintertime, of course, it’s a different story. I’m looking for May-October (when) it presents itself as an area of concern.”
Roughly a half-dozen unmarked spaces are currently available on the street, which is designated as two-hour parking.
Dennison said one of the major problems on Pitts Street is that merchants and employees park longer than two hours. Residents who live in nearby apartments also use the spaces.
“Nobody can get in and out,” he said. “I have more than 200 pictures I can show you where people who park in the morning are still there in the evening. These are our fellow business people who have offended me because they fight for the spot in front of my store. They have Main Street locations and pull into those spots on a regular basis so they don’t have to walk more than 30 feet to their store.”
Dennison called on the merchants to self-discipline and self-police.
“We have seen a significant amount of congestion,” he said. “The two questions I get asked the most at my own business are where is the bathroom and where can I park in this town?”
The shopkeeper argued that the two-hour parking zone is now obsolete.
“The people we bring into this town now, in my opinion, want to be here longer that two hours,” he said. “You can’t really visit the town the way you should in two hours.”
Dennison tells his customers, “you can park anywhere in this town, because nobody enforces parking.”
“The first people that don’t pay attention to (parking laws) is our merchants, and I’m offended by their doing what they do,” he said. “I believe the Main Street program (should) have as part of their program parking analysis and solution.”
Police Chief Arnold Downing admitted that the town could not give out tickets on Main Street.
“State Highway has already stated that,” he said. “But we can go straight down Pitt Street … and it’s at the discretion of the Council how we want to do it. We could go ahead and make it a one-way street and park on both sides … you could go ahead and designate individual parking spaces for individuals who live here. I think we need to look at the whole big picture.”
Economic and Community Development Director Michael Day said the issue comes up regularly during Merchant Association meetings.
“For the nine years that I’ve been every other month I hear this exact conversation,” he said. “There are certain ones that don’t care about it, and there are other ones that really do try to find other parking and move away. There are certain ones that … they might go for a few weeks doing what we’ve asked them to do, but they’ll slowly creep back into the same habits that Mr. Dennison is talking about – fighting for that parking place as close as they can get right in front of their business. It happens on Broad Street down by Taylor Bank; it happens in the municipal parking lot at the post office.”
Councilmember Troy Purnell favored adding the loading zone, while councilmember Paula Lynch said she wanted to examine the situation further before making a decision.
“Things have changed, and there is always unintended consequence of change,” said Mayor Gee Williams. “Let us take a look at the situation. We’re going to have to do something and I’d rather have the input and support of the business community. There’s going to have to be some cooperation about the parking in some common sense way, because we not going to go down knocking down buildings (that) we built the whole doggone revitalization around.
“We have to look at this creatively,” Williams continued. “Quite frankly I’m glad we have a parking problem. We had a parking problem for eight years, and that was we didn’t have enough cars.”
Earlier during the meeting, transitional housing and emergency food services nonprofit Diakonia thanked the town for its continued support. The organization distributed more than 100,000 pounds of food during the last fiscal year and provided housing for several dozen Berlin and Worcester County individuals and families.
The town agreed to extend its $7,500 grant to Diakonia during the next fiscal year.
“You all stepped up to the plate when it was difficult to do,” said vice president Joel Todd. “We were on the edge of calamity and the money that you gave us may not have seemed like a lot, but it made a big difference. I think in a large part it also challenged some of the larger municipalities to step up to the plate and do their share too.”
A public hearing on town ordinance 2014-03 establishing a stormwater credit fee policy was open and closed without comment. The Council unanimously approved the ordinance allowing nonprofit nonresidential property owners to earn a credit on their current stormwater utility fees provided the make required improvements. The maximum credit is 50 percent.
Ordinance 2014-4 prohibiting food trucks in Berlin was introduced and given a first reading. A public hearing on the ordinance was set for the July 28 Mayor and Council Meeting.
Council voted down a proposed entrepreneur program, offering new businesses six months of rent-free office space in Berlin’s Visitor’s Center.
Day, along with Salisbury University Small Business Development Center Director John Hickman and Worcester County Economic Development Director Bill Badger, had championed the project.
“I don’t want us to just do this and try something,” said councilmember Lisa Hall. “Obviously we haven’t got that right mix in the Visitor’s Center yet. I just have a problem with allowing people to come into a town building that’s paid for by the taxpayers of this town.”
Williams called the proposal, “an idea that has not been fully cooked. “You’re going to be wasting your time until you bring the whole thing together,” he said.
An informal vote to reject the proposal or allow organizers to present a more complete plan effectively terminated the project.
The Council approved a new three-year $74,407.15 phone service contract with Comcast. Town officials met with seven vendors during the five-month search for a new provider. Berlin phone systems had not been upgraded for more than 20 years.
Fifty four lines were purchased, including police department lines, and 40 phones were included in the purchase price. A Comcast official said the computer-driven program would not interfere with the town’s free public Wi-Fi service. The new deal could save the town more than $9,000 each year.
A motion to approve a Government Finance Officers Association request for proposal for development and vendor selection services for a new town financial system also passed unanimously. The $16,800 price tag was between electric, water and sewer departments and the town’s general fund.
“I would call this extremely important to the long-term health of the town,” Williams said.
“We just need to get this right,” said councilmember Dean Burrell. “Getting this right will put us in a much better position to have information that’s going to allow us to do to better job.”
Implementation of the plan should begin by December 2014, and the new system should be in place by the beginning of the next fiscal year.