SCOTT CITY BOARD ALLOWS MAPLE STREET PARKING

SCOTT CITY -- Residents of two blocks of Maple Street in Scott City will still be allowed to park on the street, the Scott City Council ruled Monday night.

About 15 residents protested a suggested change in a city ordinance that would prohibit parking on both sides of the street. The residents attended a public hearing held before the council's regular meeting Monday. Parking on the south side of the street in the 400 and 500 blocks of Maple Street is now allowed.

Bill Zimmerman was one of three residents who attended the hearing to voice opposition to on-street parking in that area. Zimmerman said the street was too narrow and called the situation a hazard.

"The only people who are for parking on the street are the people who live there," Zimmerman said, adding that he's lived near the two-block section for about 50 years, and driving through the area is sometimes difficult. He later asked council members to widen the street if they weren't in favor of making it a no-parking zone.

Several people who live in the neighborhood said the only place for visitors to their homes to park is in the street. Those against allowing parking maintained the street was too narrow to allow cars to park along it.

City Attorney Francis Siebert said the street is wider than 30 feet, and the only way for the city to authorize it as a no-parking zone is to enact a special city ordinance.

Mayor Shirley Young said the issue of parking in the two blocks is brought before the council "every three or four years." She maintained that the residents of the blocks have a right to park in the street or allow visitors to park there.

City Councilman John Rogers agreed. He said although he had lived on Maple Street for several years and is aware of the problem parking causes, "we can't take these people's right to park there away."

Young added that until the city could afford to widen the street, she didn't see a solution to the problem.

City Councilwoman Edith Davidson said that if a proposed increase in the city sales tax, which would have funded street repairs and improvements, had been approved by voters last year, the city probably could have widened the street.

But Zimmerman said that if the problem is brought up to the council every couple of years, something should be done to correct it. "The City Council has to answer to this," he said.

Only Councilman Ron Oller voted to enact a no-parking zone.

In other business, a representative of Falcon Cable Television, the city's cable operator, told the council that only 10 complaints about cable television service had been received in the past several months. A request was sent out with city water bills several months ago asking citizens to write to the city if they had any complaints about cable service.

City Clerk Nona Walls said the city had received 13 complaints, but that only 10 had been forwarded to Falcon so far.

The cable representative, Larry Spangler, said the number of complaints represented just .82 percent of the total cable television subscribers in the city. About 60 percent of residents subscribe to cable, he added.

The council several months ago extended Falcon's contract with the city for one year, but said a further extension depends on the number of complaints received.