Handicapped parking enforcement questioned
Please do something about handicapped parking enforcement in the city, a Greencastle resident urged local officials at the June City Council meeting.
Haywood Ware, who walks with a cane, said he’s tired of watching able-bodied individuals park in the handicap-accessible parking spots at places like Kroger, Walmart and TSC with no fear of punishment.
“We need to do something about it,” Ware, a one-time mayoral candidate, said. “I’ve heard all the stories of how we can’t enforce it because it’s on private property. That’s not true.
“If you require them to have it,” he continued, “you need to enforce it.”
Ware said he has observed young people “pull in there (handicapped spaces) with grandma’s car and run in the store. They think it’s OK as long as there’s a tag on it that they can park wherever they want. I asked one kid, ‘What’s your ailment?’ And he said, ‘Oh, this is my grandma’s car.”
Mayor Bill Dory, saying he was uncertain about jurisdiction over the spaces and would have to research it, called Police Chief Tom Sutherlin forward to comment.
The policy has always been that police do not enforce handicap parking violations on private property, Sutherlin advised. He, too, said he will research the issue further.
“If nobody calls the police department or dispatch,” Sutherlin said, “we don’t know about it.
"We don’t have time to drive through private parking lots looking for that.”
Ware, however, said he actually called the police after watching two Jeeps full of young people pull into handicap spots at Walmart. A city officer “came right away,” he said, but advised he couldn’t do anything about it on private property.
It shouldn’t be any different than shoplifting, Ware reasoned. City Police officers respond to shoplifting incidents at Walmart and other locations when they are called.
The difference, city officials pointed out, is that shoplifting is a crime. Parking violations are not.
Handicapped parking is governed by federal law under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), Ware said, noting that he has called the ADA office about the situation, which Ware said goes beyond private parking areas.
He said some of the handicapped spots on the courthouse square are not legal, including the newest additions on the east side of the courthouse, because they require the person exiting the vehicle to go out into traffic to access a ramp or sidewalk.
The spot on the south side of the square in front of the old Central Bank building is the worst, Ware said, not only because it puts the driver out into traffic before he or she can access a ramp, but because of the hazards that turning semis and other traffic can create.
“Please do something about it,” Ware urged city officials in summation.
In other business, the City Council approved a number of street closure requests:
-- Washington Street from Percy Julian Drive to Indiana Street and the courthouse for the annual Putnam County Fair Parade 2-4 p.m. Sunday, July 18. Adjacent streets also will be closed 1-4 p.m. as they have in the past
-- South Indiana Street (Washington to Walnut) for the Saturday, June 26 Putnam Pride event, as requested by Joseph Harris of the DePauw Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Time will be 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Approved with the condition businesses on the street be properly notified.
-- Briarwood Court in Whispering Winds for a 2-5 p.m. block party on Saturday, June 26. The event will feature two bands, as explained by Mickie Martin, who asked that the street be closed 1-6 p.m.
-- Fifth Street (Avenue B to Avenue C) for a street party for neighboring children and others. Requested by Larry Dickerson for a 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. closure.
-- South Indiana Street (Washington to Walnut) for an after golf scramble celebration Saturday, Aug. 21 for A Kinetic Change. Julie Carr requested the closure be 4 p.m.-midnight.
-- Walnut Street (Jackson to Vine) for the Pedal Putnam event on Saturday, Oct. 2. The request was tabled so that organizers could consider other options since that day is already filled with activity, including the farmers’ market, along with Old Gold Day at DePauw including the inauguration of new President Lori S. White. “It’s going to be a logjam downtown,” Councilman Adam Cohen commented.