PARIS — Signs will be placed around the perimeter of Moore Park asking drivers not to park on the grass.
It’s an effort to halt the growth of an informal parking lot on the northeast end of the park, which lies between High and Park streets.
In a unanimous vote Monday, selectmen authorized Town Manager Amy Bernard to place at least eight small signs on the park’s border with Park Street, in the hope that drivers will park their vehicles on the side of the road, not the grass. The signs would cost between $14 and $25 apiece, Bernard estimated.
Selectmen hope that the current parking area, a dirt patch on the corner of the park, can be developed into a formal parking lot. Bernard said the town had budgeted $8,000 in the coming year’s budget to establish the parking lot, but work will probably not begin until the fall.
“We can at least use this as our first step toward trying to change some behavior,” Bernard told selectmen.
Last year, the Town Office staff received many complaints from residents about drivers who were parking their vehicles in the park, away from the road shoulder, and selectmen repeatedly discussed the issue during the summer.
Though agreeing with the importance of protecting the park’s grass, Selectman Robert Wessels said the town needs to be careful that its no parking signs don’t dissuade people from using Moore Park entirely.
“The park is there for us,” Wessels said. “We need to have parking there for people.” Selectmen should consider a long-term solution to the issue, he said.
“I think honestly that just throwing up signs that say ‘no parking’ isn’t the right way to go,” Wessels said.
Board Chairman Bob Kirchherr agreed that the town needed to come up with a permanent solution to the parking question, but said the signs were the best way forward for the time being.
“I want to try to protect the grass that’s already there,” Kirchherr said.
“This is not the solution, it’s a short-term solution that I think will help protect the grass and maintain what we have and we can look forward to the long-term solution that involves a parking lot.”
Wessels, Kirchherr and Selectman Sam Elliot voted for the measure. Selectmen Ryan Lorrain and Gerald Kilgore were absent from the meeting.
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- A patch of gravel on the northeast corner of Moore Park in South Paris is a commonly-used parking area for people enjoying the park.
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- New signs asking drivers not to park on the grass will be posted around the perimeter of Moore Park in South Paris.
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