Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The big item on the agenda of the Goldendale City Council last night was a public hearing on proposals to ban parking on a portion of West Broadway and whether or not to convert the intersection of Mill and West Broadway into a four-way stop.
A half-dozen people who live or have property on the street that would be affected by the proposals testified. Most of them were opposed to any parking restriction.
One of the property owners, Jack Runyan, put it this way:
“If you take ’em off Broadway, where are you going to put ’em? You got seven businesses on Broadway. Now you’re going to restrict their parking? The Presby Mansion is one of ’em. You take three spots off of the front. They got restricted on the West side. Then you’ve got five houses that don’t have parking either. So where you gonna put ’em? you gonna put ’em on the right of way?”
Some of the councilors agreed. Here’s Andy Halm:
“If they eliminate parking, I feel that it’s not fair to the homeowners, especially homeowners, due to the fact they’re going to have to cut the curb to use the parking strip, or they’re going to have to go back behind their house and remove their sheds or remove their fence and then put new fence up. I don’t think the city should make residents essentially have to pay money to fix their property because we’re trying to fix a problem.”
In the end, councilors voted to send the proposal back to the public works committee. Mayor Dave Jones laid out the plans:
“At the next city council meeting, we’ll have a recommendation from the public works committee for the Collins street parking issue. And so we’ll deal with that, and the meeting after that we’ll revisit the Broadway one.”