Adams Police Have Plan for High School Parking
 A plan's being put in place to deal with parking issues when the middle school and Notre Dame School temporarily reopen this fall. |
Hoosac Valley High School is currently undergoing a $41 million renovation project and will be closed until fall 2012. During that time, the high school and middle school students will be housed in the former Adams Memorial Middle School and the nearby Notre Dame School.
"Parking will become an issue that we need to address sooner rather than later," stated a letter to the Selectmen from Sgt. David Clark. Clark said he had met with Principal Henry Duval and "we believe we have developed a plan that will, hopefully, minimize the parking issue."
Selectmen Chairman Arthur "Skip" Harrington read the letter and the plan at last week's Selectmen's meeting.
Police and school officials said faculty and staff will be provided parking on campus, including lots on the north side of Valley Street, near the basketball court, off Columbia Terrace and behind Pope John Paul the Great Church. If a large function, such as a funeral, is scheduled at the church, staff will be told to park in the municipal lot on Depot Street.
The north side of Columbia Terrace and Harding Avenue to 37 Harding will be no parking on the north side.
Seniors with parking permits will be allowed to park along the south side of Valley Street to the most western end of the housing authority property and along Lincoln Street near the soccer field.
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"Students will be advised that any infractions will result in the driving priviliges being revoked," according to the letter.
Clark told the Selectmen that he and Duval had spoken with Department of Public Works Director Thomas Satko about signage. There may be some funds from the school project to help offset that cost.
The board — Harrington, Michael Ouellette and Scott Nichols were present — recommended the plan to the Traffic Commission.
The board put off until Wednesday's workshop meeting at the request from Park Commission Chairman Wilfred Bourdon to allow Town Administrator Jonathan Butler to make decisions on late-minute field requests.
"We wanted to make sure we didn't have a slipshod appraoch to use of our fields so we made a very stringent protocol so people would have to go for most things to the Parks Commission, to the Selectmen for approval," said Bourdon. "We stopped a lot of things we needed to stop. ...
"But we've created a lot of hoops, a lot of red tape and now we're on another extreme."
Bourdon said valid requests now take up to two month to answer, so if a school asks for the emergency use of a field for one night it can't be accommodated. "I think that's ridiculous."
Butler should be allowed to oversee any day-to-day operations while policy and seasonal scheduling stay with the commission and Selectmen, said Bourdon.
The Selectmen were amenable but wanted more detailed information after speaking with Town Counsel Edmund St. John III.
"I'm in favor of doing it but put it down in writing so we don't violate any charters or protocols," said Ouellette.
Harrington agreed, "we want to support you; we just need to get some technical stuff done."
The Selectmen will take up the matter at its Wednesday workshop meeting, to be held at the Discover the Berkshires Visitors Center at 7 p.m. Harrington said the board would suspend the rules to vote on the parks issue and on changes to a lease with the Adams Agricultural Committee that clarifies any improvements to or structures built on the fairgrounds belong to the town. The agenda is here.
In other business,
• The board approved Chapter 90 monies for paving three sections of Summer Street, Gavin Avenue, Bob's Hill and Myrtle Street. The vote had been put off until Selectmen could review the spending with Satko. Harrington said that from now on, he would like such information provided at workshop meetings so the board could do site visits before voting.
• The board approved a resolution supporting the expansion of the bottle bill.
• Signed the town warrant for town meeting on June 27, at 7 p.m. at Plunkett Elementary School.
Tags: Hoosac Valley, parking,
