Parking targeted
Greenport’s code committee is recommending changes to parking regulations that, if implemented, would result in the enforcement of parking signs in the village for the first time in many years.
Mayor David Nyce told Village Board members Monday night the committee is recommending enforcement of two-hour limits on Front Street from Third to Main streets and on Main Street from Front to Center streets.
On southern Main Street, between Front Street and the turnaround at Claudio’s Restaurant, parking would be limited to 30 minutes. Parking on South Street between Second and Main streets would be limited to 30 minutes. The existing 10-minute spots in the IGA supermarket lot and on First Street from South to Front streets would become 30-minute spots.
Two additional spaces for handicapped drivers would be added on Front Street, two more in the IGA lot and two on First Street, outside Colonial Drugs.
The mayor asked village attorney Joseph Prokop to draft a resolution on the proposed parking changes that would then be subject to a public hearing before becoming law.
Businesses like White’s Hardware on Main Street and the Colonial drugstore on Front and First streets are losing customers because of a lack of turnover in parking spaces, the mayor said. The village has not enforced parking regulations for years. The proposal is aimed at rectifying that problem and assuring that patrons of local businesses can find places to park.
Once a parking plan is implemented by resolution, it would fall to Southold Town Police to enforce it, Mr. Nyce said.
The committee isn’t currently considering a proposal to put meters on either Front or Main streets, the mayor said.
The parking plan would, for the first time, enable enforcement of rules about parking at hydrants or in spaces reserved for handicapped drivers.
Mr. Nyce promised that the proposal would be available at least two weeks before a public hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
BACK ON TRACK?
Utilities director Jack Naylor told board members that work on the $9 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade, which had fallen behind schedule, is back on track. Completion of the project is expected by the target date at the end of June 2011.
He also told board members that while the Long Island Power Authority reported $32 million in costs related to preparation for Hurricane Earl, the village electric company incurred minimal expenses “thanks to the efforts put forth by the mayor, pre-planning by management personnel and cooperation of utilities staff.”
Shifts in staffing at the light and sewer plants provided coverage that limited excess personnel costs only to the period from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on the night of the storm, he said. He didn’t give a dollar figure on what it cost the village to prepare for the storm, which never packed more punch than a mild nor’easter.
HISTORIC BUILDINGS
The Village Board is exploring the possibility of granting historic landmark status to its electric and sewer plants. Despite objections from former trustee and utilities chief Bill Swiskey, the board is looking into the advantages or disadvantages of obtaining landmark status for the two buildings. The mayor said he would ask the Historic Preservation Commission to explore the idea.
Mr. Swiskey insisted it would be a mistake that would limit any changes to the buildings that the village might eventually want to make.
Trustee Mary Bess Phillips told him the board isn’t committing to pursuing landmark status, only exploring the idea.
RESIGNATIONS AND REPLACEMENTS
Vickie Swensen has resigned from the Planning Board, on which she has served since May. Her term would have expired on April 1, 2015. Mr. Nyce said he will be making recommendations to fill her seat as well as openings on both the Zoning Board of Appeals and Historic Preservation Commission.
YEAR-ROUND MOVIE HOUSE
Trustee Chris Kempner agreed to help Greenport Improvement Committee member Leueen Miller explore the possibility of keeping the Greenport Theatre operating year round. When it was first renovated in 2006, owner Josh Sapan had hoped to keep it open all year, but that became fiscally infeasible.
Ms. Miller hopes to find ways to make such a plan work and turned to Ms. Kempner, who is also Riverhead Town’s community development director, for advice about similar efforts under way there that might be applied in Greenport. The Greenport movie house now operates from late May through early September.
