The Skaneateles village board of trustees discussed the possibility of making a new local law that would prohibit parking on one side of narrow streets in the village at its Aug. 8 meeting.
The village received an email from Skaneateles Fire Department Fire Chief Eric Sell expressing concern over the current situation. Many of the streets in the village are impassable by fire truck or ambulance when cars are parked on both sides of the street, Sell said in the email.
Sell requested that the village re-evaluate all the streets in the village, but particularly the roads in the newly built Parkside subdivision such as Orchard, Sinclair and Packwood, which he said are hard to drive down in a regular car when there are vehicles parked on both sides.
“It’s not just contractors, it’s homeowners, and they park out in the middle of the road all night long and it’s a hazard,” Sell said at the meeting.
The board and Police Chief Lloyd Perkins said they would work on evaluating all the village roads before putting together a proposal. On-street parking is already prohibited on certain streets in the village, and board members said they wanted to address all possible problem areas with this local law.
Before making a proposal there are a number of considerations to be made, such as which direction emergency vehicles would likely be driving down a street, locations of fire hydrants and locations of curves in the road, Perkins said.
Trustee Sue Jones suggested that before the village holds a public hearing on a proposed law, it should send out letters to notify residents that live on affected streets to engage them to give feedback. All public hearings are publicized through a notice in a local newspaper, but a letter or more direct notification to residents would help the board get the best possible feedback, Jones said.
In other business:
—The board passed a resolution endorsing an application for a New York state grant prepared by Director of Municipal Operation Bob Lotkowictz for measures that would save power and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the village. If it got the grant, the village would replace all of its street lights from high-pressure sodium bulbs to high efficiency LED bulbs. It would also purchase several land-based photovoltaic cells to be mounted at the Waste Water Treatment Plant on Jordan Street.
The changes proposed would reduce the village-wide need for purchase power, or non-hydroelectric power, by 19 percent, Lotkowictz said.
He compared the grant to the greenhouse gas reduction grant the village secured last year which made it possible to purchase the photovoltaic cells for the new village hall, “the village has got a momentum with these things,” he said.
Lotkowictz also reported that Meaghan Liddell and Kaitlyn Murphy, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry students who were interning with the village department of public works for the summer, completed and presented their draft for a village climate action plan.
The plan outlines strategies that the village could take to reduce its carbon emissions 25 percent by 2030. The strategies included installing high-efficiency lighting and other appliances in publicly owned buildings, promoting community power saving initiatives such as bicycle use, electric cars or a “Lights out at Night Policy” and increasing bus ridership and efficiency in the school district.
The interns also completed a tree inventory and found that the number of trees on village property had doubled since 1998 when the previous inventory had been done.
—In response to a letter from a resident expressing concern about cars parking too close to the intersection of State Street and East Austin, Chief Perkins said he would arrange for signs to be put up there. New York State vehicle and traffic law states that it is illegal to park within 30 feet of an intersection, so a sign would remind residents of that law and the police department would be more active in enforcing the rule, he said.
—The board voted to give permission to a group of Skaneateles High School graduates to give a concert in Clift Park from 2 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18. They added that the performers are not allowed to solicit donations in the park.
Joe Genco is the editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
