Theresa Swope

Following a successful Moran Street Community Action meeting, the Project Safe Neighborhood committee hosted yet another successful meeting. The meeting May 26 was with downtown business owners and merchants and focused primarily on parking and delivery zone issues.

"I've been chief for four years and there has always been a controversy about parking downtown, especially about deliveries," Bay Minette Police Chief Michael Rowland said.

Rowland said delivery trucks stopped on side roads created a safety hazard, particularly for pedestrians.

"A couple of years ago we had a couple of incidents where pedestrians were nearly hit because they couldn't see for a delivery truck parked in the middle of the road," he said.

One attendee asked if the people were Jaywalking - not using a crosswalk, but the chief responded that that was irrelevant.

"Jaywalking is not so much an offense anymore, but it is illegal to block traffic, and that's what these trucks are doing," he said.

He said he would like to see a consensus on ideas that would help resolve the situation to everyone's satisfaction.

"We need to find a solution that will benefit the business owners, delivery people and patrons of downtown," he said.

The biggest problem with the delivery problems, Rowland said, is the lack of delivery zones.

"There are no delivery zones in the downtown area," he said. A task force, lead by District 3 Councilman John Biggs, and served by District 2 Councilman Mike Phillips and District 1 Councilman Danleigh Corbett was charged with identifying some possible zones.

During the meeting, local business owners had the chance to voice their opinions about the zones.

Biggs expressed frustration because a FedEx employee had been ticketed while double-parked to make a delivery to Moore Printing.

"He can't fit in my back alley. It was a large piece of equipment, too large to deliver back there," Biggs said.

Local property owner Al Thompson III pointed out that Biggs at least had an alley to utilize.

"So many businesses around the perimeter of the Square have 18-wheeler deliveries and there is no where for them to park.

"I have a remodeling job coming up and will be getting 18-wheeler loads of supplies," he said. Thompson's business is on Hand Avenue north of the square.

Biggs said the issue was serious, and could prevent some deliveries from being made.

"UPS said if they get tickets the people on square won't get deliveries, or if they do there will be a surcharge on all deliveries," he said.

Those in attendance agreed to a delivery zone down the center of Hoyle Avenue.

"The delivery lanes will have to be marked clearly," he said. He added that an ordinance would have to be established as well.

"We do not have an ordinance yet, there is no such animal," he said. "We also have to designate how long they'll be there, some sort of limitation on how long they can stay in that spot."

Additional delivery zones will be established beside the parking lot, right off the square, where trucks will have access to and from U.S. Highway 31.

"There are seven spots beside that parking lot that are rarely used, if at all. We can re-stripe that and make it a delivery zone," Rowland said.

That left the south side of the square to take care of, and the suggestion was made to take out parking places along the edge of Second Street, but was rejected because of the already existing parking problem.

"We could take that triangle where 31 comes into the square out, re-stripe it and make it a delivery zone for box trucks and small trucks only," Rowland suggested.

That idea was received more warmly. The last item regarding delivery zones concerned Builders Hardware.

"Builders Hardware has a unique situation," Corbett said. "They used to park in front, but now there is a median there."

He noted that the store only gets one delivery a week and usually only takes about 15 minutes.

"In an extreme situation like that, give us a call and we'll have Code Enforcement come out there and help direct traffic," Rowland said. He said he would do the same for deliveries in an established delivery zone that would need a substantial amount of time to unload.

Parking and crosswalks were two other major issues brought up by the merchants.

David Brewer with the County said the Revenue Commissioner's office will soon be moving to the old DHR building and would free up parking in the lot next to the Probate Office.

While Rowland suggested some of those parking places be replaced with a delivery zone, Trey Dickson disagreed.

"That's taking parking places away and jurors are already struggling to find parking," he said. He noted that on court days parking places are scarce.

One suggestion was to publicize public parking and define those areas more clearly.

"We need to put up signs on the square directing people to the public parking spaces," one guest said.

Inlook owner David Williams suggested attaching a map to the letters that go out to jurors instructing them where to park. The same was suggested for out-of-town attorneys coming in for trial.

"Probation is moving too so we can go in and scoop up those parking places," Rowland said.

Several spoke of reducing the two-hour parking to one-hour and the recommendation was made to install parking meters.

The idea of parking meters was vehemently shot down by Uncle Grumpy owner Carol Edgington.

"No. If you want to drive people away from downtown, put in parking meters," Edgington said.

Addressing the issue of the reduction in allotted time, Dickson asked if the time was going to be enforced.

Rowland pointed out that while his men can enforce the outer perimeter of the square, the inner perimeter is the Sheriff's Office's responsibility.

Mayor Tillery suggested the merchants give the City time to implement some of the ideas discussed and see if that didn't alleviate some of the problems.

"Let's meet again six weeks out from now and see how these ideas have worked, then we can revisit some of the other ideas," she said.