NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment to the traffic /parking ordinance that will reduce the number of parking spaces on Main Street by about six.

The board agreed to institute no parking from the corner of Pikes Hill Road and Main Street north 200 feet on the Advertiser-Democrat side of the street and make a right turn only from Pikes Hill Road onto Main Street. The plan will improve visibility for traffic entering Main Street from Pikes Hill.

The approval paves the way for the Department of Transportation to issue a traffic flow permit for the $8.2 million medical building under construction on Pikes Hill Road. The building is expected to open in January and increase daily traffic counts downtown by 800 cars.

The new regulation will go into effect within the month after stripes are painted on the parking spaces to designate no parking, Town Manager David Holt said.

The DOT refused to entertain a request that the no-parking restriction be lifted nights and weekends when the medical center is not in operation, Holt said. The request came from members of the Norway Historical Society and others who use the spaces for events at their headquarters on Main Street and for other purposes.

In other business, the board reviewed a request from property owner Marshall White for the town to continue plowing the stretch of road up to his house at 11 Rye Knoll Drive. White contends the road up to that point is public, but Holt said further investigation of the records, including town meeting action, must be made to ascertain the true intent of town meeting voters when they voted to discontinue maintenance on part of the road many years ago.

The board also voted unanimously to allow Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman to take any action up to and including going to court to get a property at 21 McKay Road, owned by Troy and Robin Parker, cleaned of trash. Photographs taken over a year show the property contains piles of garbage and trash. Repeated notices from the town to clean it up have been ignored.

The owners failed to attend the hearing Thursday night.

Selectmen also unanimously appointed Barbara Payne to a one-year seat on the Norway-Paris Solid Waste Committee. They also heard a report about the repair of the Norway Opera House clock tower roof, which has had several pieces of metal blown off. Holt said he has been advised to repair the entire roof rather than just a few pieces because of the cost of staging the job. The roof is not in need of immediate repair, he said.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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