State to issue permit for Main Street parking
A temporary permit the state is expected to issue Friday will enable Uniontown to open parking spaces on Main Street in downtown in November, officials said. City council removed a resolution for final approval of an ordinance that establishes the spaces and fines for violations from its meeting agenda last week because council members had some questions about it and because they believed a required state highway occupancy permit would not be issued until December.
Charmaine Sampson, project coordinator for the George C. Marshall Plan II downtown revitalization initiative spearheaded by county commissioner Joe Hardy III, said the Department of Transportation will issue the occupancy permit in December, but it will also issue a temporary permit as soon as Friday.
Temporary taped stripes will be set in place to mark the spaces on the state-owned street in November after two festivals, in which Main Street will be closed, wrap up, Sampson said.
Using tape to mark the spaces will allow the city to eliminate or move some spaces if necessary before PennDOT resurfaces the street in the spring, she said.
The lines for the parking spaces can then be painted on the roadway.
In the meantime, council scheduled a meeting for next Wednesday at noon to vote on the parking ordinance, which would create up to 49 spaces in which parking is free for two hours.
“I’m very confident it will pass,” Mayor James Sileo said.
He said a PennDOT representative called him Tuesday and told him a permit would be issued in about a week.
Sileo said that news came as a surprise to him and council members who had not been told about the temporary permit.
“Council should have been informed,” Sileo said.
He said the changes to the ordinance that council wanted have been made.
The changes include removing a barrier blocking Arch Street, prohibiting parking on South Street between Morgantown and Arch streets, eliminating three proposed police-only parking spaces on Peter Street near the county courthouse and changing the traffic flow direction on Peter Street, which is one way, to east to west.
Sampson said the ordinance also prohibits all truck traffic on Main Street so deliveries to business will have to be made at rear entrances, she said.
The Marshall team will also work with the city to make sure people who work in town don’t park in the Main Street spaces, she said.
The idea behind Main Street parking is to make downtown friendlier to shoppers or others having business in town and to support businesses, she said.
“It’s a big step for the city to do this,” Sampson said.
It starts in November following two events planned for next week.
The Sons of Italy in America and the State Theatre Center for the Arts received permission from council to host an Italian music festival on Oct. 24 from noon to 9 p.m. on Main Street between Morgantown Street and Beeson Boulevard.
The street will then be closed between Beeson Boulevard and Gallatin Avenue on Oct. 30 from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the last farmers’ market of the season.
After that, the street will be closed from Church Street to Five Corners West during a weekend in November so several work crews can lay the temporary stripes for the parking spaces, Sampson said.
The spaces will be in the right lane and the ordinance designates the left lane as a through-traffic lane and a no-loading zone.
The ordinance establishes a $300 fine for parking in the left lane and authorizes the city to tow away violators.
Violating the two-hour parking limit for the spaces on the street carries a $50 fine and empowers the city to tow scofflaws.