Last evening, a special meeting was held at the Snyder Township municipal building to discuss the township’s comprehensive plan.
Much of the night focused on the comprehensive plan. However, during the public comment period of the meeting, township resident Helen Mengel brought up the proposed amendment to the school zone “no parking” ordinance that was advertised in The Daily Herald.
The notice in the Herald said the township supervisors will at the regular meeting to be held October 3 at 7 p.m. “consider and act upon the following ordinance: Ordinance 2005-03. An ordinance amending ordinance 2005-01 creating no parking areas on portions of Clay Avenue and Hospital Drive in Snyder Township.”
The advertisement also states, “Ordinance 2005-1 is amended by adding to the end of Section 2 thereof the following: and parking shall be permitted in all of said locations between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. prevailing time on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and all of the time on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.”
Mengel said at last night’s meeting the ordinance should not be changed so as to protect the children who arrive and leave Tyrone Area School District grounds from passing motorists.
Tom Muir, representative of TASD, also spoke during the public comment period of the meeting.
He said he originally asked township supervisors for different “no parking” signs to be placed along Clay Avenue.
Muir said he wanted signs allowing for 20 minute parking so that parents could pick up or drop off their children and that the “no parking” signs would be in effect from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days just in the school zone.
Muir said he did not ask for the signs to be placed near the tennis courts, Hospital Drive and all along Clay Avenue, or for the signs to allow for only “loading and unloading”.
At the township’s regularly scheduled August meeting, the board of supervisors were confronted by three township residents who live near the high school or elementary school.
Residents at that meeting said that eliminating the parking along Clay Avenue causes an inconvenience to them. When visitors such as relatives, lawn care workers, health care workers, etc. come to their houses, there is no place for them to park.
They asked if they could be granted residential parking permits to be allotted more parking spaces. The supervisors said the permit idea would not work because if cars are parked there, it creates a safety hazard along Clay Avenue.
At the August meeting, chairman of the supervisors, Charlie Diehl, said he would be in favor of amending the “no parking” ordinance so that residents could park along the street after school hours and during holidays.
