Trumansburg board weighs parking and signage concerns

Transit and parking matters in the village of Trumansburg took center stage during the village’s board of trustees Aug. 11 meeting.

During the meeting, board members discussed signage along public roadways and parking law enforcement.

Trustee Jhoanna Haynes said she receives complaints about road signs not being clear enough for motorists. She referenced Congress Street’s signage as being problematic.

“I don’t want to litter our streets with signs, but at the same time, give people good guidance,” Haynes said. “There are people that say, ‘I did not see your sign.’ When I go out there and look at it, [that claim] is valid. Maybe we need a clear understanding of how we should put our signs, and perhaps working with the Department of Public Works to correct some of those, or put up signs where it makes more sense.”

Haynes said it is not always understood by village visitors or passersby that the general speed limit in the village, save for the exception of Main Street, is 25 miles per hour.

“Our speed limit signs are at the beginnings of streets and don’t necessarily go in between the blocks all the time,” she noted. “For something like a long road like Congress Street, it may make sense to put an additional sign halfway through that street. I think everybody within the village has an understanding that it is 25 mph within the village, but perhaps people that are visiting do not. What I often hear from the [police] chief is that people that are residents are complaining on behalf of their visitors, family members or friends that they did not see any signs and they got a ticket for speeding.”

Trustee Ben Darfler said that he would support having a sign for the area’s speed limit halfway along a road. He said Washington Street has a similar issue as the one outlined with Congress Street. 

Haynes said residents also complain about the village’s parking law. 

“We are always talking about how we have limited parking, but our current traffic law is that you have to have all four wheels of a car on grass and off of pavement, so people do get tickets for having even two wheels slightly being on the pavement,” she said. 

There are only two signs that direct motorists not to park on the pavement: one by the Ulysses Philomathic Library and another on Wake Street, Haynes said.

“We either need to revisit that and and really decide whether it’s worth having people avoid parking all over town and putting more signs up for no parking on pavement, or allowing

people to park on more streets,” she noted.

Darfler said that revisiting parking could be complicated.

“My concern is that if it’s not very clear where you can’t park, then it gets very wishy-washy very quickly,” he said. “You might end up with something like Main Street, where there’s a shoulder line, so it’s clear where you’re not supposed to be. I think there’s a world in which we get to do more and more of that around the village for a bunch of different reasons, parking being one of them, and then that would make it more clear.”

The current law is complicated, Darfler said. He noted that the town will have to decide whether or not to enforce its current regulation. Darfler added that he has only ever seen more widespread parking issues during times of increased car traffic, like during the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance.

“People are mostly doing the right thing,” he said.

For Trustee Marcia Horn, issues could be solved with a warning.

“It seems like it occurs just a few times a year, maybe even more in the summer, when you have a barbecue or more guests or something,” Horn said. “But I think just letting people know to move their cars. And I don’t think it needs to be this big, convoluted thing.”

Mayor Rordan Hart said that the board would have to make a decision on the current law, but asking an officer to not enforce the traffic law on the books is out of the question, he noted.

“The issue is that the law on the books says that it is prohibited to park any vehicles on the road,” Hart said. “So you cannot tell a police officer to disregard enforcement of a law that’s on the books.”

A parking ticket in Trumansburg comes with a $25 penalty.