WILLIAMS - Officials in the city of Williams voted to extend the diagonal parking along Route 66, from Safeway to the Mountainside Inn, during their April 9 regular meeting. While diagonal parking can currently be found in the downtown area alone, city officials plan to lengthen the parking in an effort to both reduce traffic speed in and out of town, and add additional parking spaces throughout Route 66 as it passes through the city.
The addition of diagonal parking will also allow the eventual beautification of the area, officials said, which may include benches and trees throughout the downtown area. The added parking spaces will also change the current two lane sections of Route 66 to one lane.
Williams Mayor John Moore said the idea for lengthening the diagonal parking has been something that city officials have discussed for years.
"Over the last two or three years, we discussed diagonal parking throughout the downtown area," Moore said. "A couple years ago we did the four block area of the downtown area. A few months ago, we extended it down to Buffalo Pointe where the street is there. A month or so ago, the Main Street Committee met with the community, or a good part of the community. There were probably 50 or 60 people from the business community there. They came up with their three top priorities for the downtown area, the downtown area being from Seventh Street all the way down to Mountainside, including Route 66 and also Railroad Avenue. I think, at the top of their recommendation, was diagonal parking."
Williams City Manager Dennis Wells cautioned that the diagonal parking may not add as many parking spaces as some might expect.
"It may not be something that will live up to expectations of a lot of folks, because as you go eastbound, especially on that south side of Route 66, you'll notice there are a lot of turn-ins, a lot of curb cuts and whatnot, so there is some diagonal parking that can be put in, but it may not be the quantity or the amount that a lot of folks might imagine could be put in," Wells said.
Old Smokey's Restaurant owner Dan Barnes said that diagonal parking would help slow traffic on the both ends of Route 66, as it will go from a two lanes to one lane.
"Some of those people have not forgotten that they are off the freeway until they get to about Fourth Street, because they'll be doing 65-70 miles an hour down there," Barnes said. "It will slow things down and I think it will actually help the community, in terms of people will actually have time to see what's going on there. I really think that slowing things down will have a significant impact on both ends of town."
Jeff Dent with the Williams Volunteer Fire Department said the fire department opposed the idea during the April 9 meeting.
"We, at the fire department, would be adamantly against that," Dent said. "We try and avoid downtown when we have calls right now, because there's not enough area. There are people parked diagonally on one side and against the curb on the other side, so to get a truck through and not enough for cars to pull over. We can avoid that small area that it's in right now. If you did up and down the street, I think it will cause some problems for us."
Reader Comments
Posted: Sunday, April 19, 2009
Article comment by:
Jason & Stefanie Moore
Obviously the two negative commenters are not from Williams, nor understand what it is like to own a business in a small town. Williams is a historic town that wouldn't be enhanced by an ugly three story parking structure. All of those so called "Low Class Establishments", are owned by honest hard working families trying to make a living. By continuing the diagonal parking, it creates continuity through the town, and gives all busineses ample parking for their patrons. What detracts from the city of Williams are people with bad attitudes, no common sense, and hide behind screen names.
Posted: Friday, April 17, 2009
Article comment by:
wabi
making the road one lane & slowing traffic down? good idea. accomplishing this by turning downtown into a parking lot? very, very bad idea. williams is not a pretty town - except for its surroundings. making visitors drive through a gauntlet of parked cars won't inspire anyone to linger, or return, or even to get out of their car to visit the tacky, low-class establishments in town. there is a large parking lot just north of railroad avenue. why not put a 3-story parking structure there (2 levels underground, 1 level above ground), and remove all parking from the roads in downtown? then the roads can be reduced to one lane and the sidewalks can be widened and planted with trees & shrubs, making it a nice place to walk & visit the tacky, low-class establishments.
what with that ill-conceived theme park & other bad ideas, williams seems determined to make itself the ugliness capital of the world.
Posted: Thursday, April 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Jake
April fool’s joke I hope.
This is a great way to cause traffic problems. Especially in the summer when you got people playing real life cowboy, robber, and sheriff.
What the city has is sufficient. Speeding has not caused any problems. Definitely give the cops something to do i.e. police the parking. Maybe add some meters also… to ice it.
Maybe if we get a theme park there can be a place where people can park diagonally, play real life cowboy, robber, and sheriff.
Then perhaps, the nonsense can stop in town.
