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Councilman suggests it’s time to do something about square trouble spots
With the enforcement part of parking on the Putnam County Courthouse Square apparently rectified, one Greencastle councilman wonders if it’s time for more drastic measures.
In the name of safety, visibility and maneuverability, City Councilman Dave Murray has suggested the city revisit how parking is positioned along the south side of the square, as well as in the block of Washington Street immediately east of the square (between Starbucks and Old National Bank).
Speaking during the Council reports portion of the April City Council meeting, Murray said he was offering the suggestion as a ”heads-up for members of the Council and the public.”
“I’ve been concerned,” he said, “about that corner across from Starbucks and the parking along ONB, and have felt for some time -- and I know that I’m not the only one to feel that way -- that some of those spaces should be eliminated.
“It’s really tight in there, and people are trying to go by on the right (at the northeast corner) because somebody’s turning left.”
Murray said he has recently met with Mayor Bill Dory and Police Chief Tom Sutherlin about the matter, and although no changes are in the immediate offing, Sutherlin later talked with Alicia Linton, who runs the park enforcement program for GPD.
“The other intersection she’s concerned about,” Councilman Murray said, “is particularly where tractor-trailers are coming south on Jackson Street, trying to make that left-hand turn in front of (the former site) Family Support Services, where of all things, we have a handicapped parking space.
“I don’t know how you get in and out of there with those tractor-trailers coming at you,” Murray added.
The conversation, Murray continued, has been about turning the dozen diagonal parking spaces on the south side of the square into probably half as many parallel parking spots, which would open up space for semis to turn more safely.
That’s certainly not a new idea. In fact, it was a change first suggested by a 1980 transportation study undertaken by the Evansville firm Bernardin and Lochmueller. Those same engineers also suggested turning Washington and Franklin streets into one-way pairs between the square and Bloomington Street (which would have necessitated buying at least two properties to allow access from Franklin at Bloomington Street). None of those suggestions was ever implemented.
However, a public hearing on the findings of that study produced a classic response from a veteran truck driver, who addressed the City Council headed by Mayor Jane Harlan.
As those findings were being shared with a generally disagreeable public, the trucker, who had run big rigs from coast to coast, stood before the City Council and opened local eyes in what was then a smoke-filled room above the fire station.
“That section of 231 through here (Greencastle),” he told a room so quiet you could have heard his cigarette ash drop, “is the biggest bottleneck between Chicago and Florida.”
Of course, that analysis was a bit of an exaggeration (ever driven through Atlanta?), but the point was hammered home on how truck drivers feel about making that awful turn on our square.
Meanwhile, the possibility of the parallel parking change and elimination of two or three spaces along East Washington Street, just east of Indiana Street, are just suggestions right now, Murray assured.
“We’re a long way from putting this on (City Attorney) Laurie’s (Hardwick’s) plate,” he said, realizing that the Indiana Department of Transportation would have a say in the matter as well.
“But I want to solicit any information and input,” the councilman said, hoping for more dialogue in the near future.