Citing the fact that it is not in their purview, the Derry Highway Safety Committee declined to act on the request of a resident for neighbors to stop parking on a grassed-in oval within their cul-de-sac.
Daniel Gray, a resident of Sunnyside Lane, wrote to the committee to request action. Gray wrote that the issue of residents parking on the green is “out of control.” He said he mows the island, and attached receipts from Home Depot signifying his efforts. But his neighbors use it for overflow parking, he wrote.
Gray even offered to pay for a truckload of new topsoil to refresh the green.
But Police Chief Ed Garone said there wasn’t much he can do about it unless parking was prohibited on the green area.
“While it’s town property, this seems to be a neighborhood issue,” Garone said.
“It is a basic courtesy issue,” member Randall Chase said, adding that basic courtesy isn’t seen as often as it should be.
Gray also expressed concern about unregistered vehicles being parked on the green, and Garone said he would check into that.
“If we put ‘No Parking’ signs in a cul-de-sac, it will start a precedent,” Derry Superintendent of Operations Alan Cote said.
Chase said the town could line the island with rocks and thus prevent parking, but he added that it would cause problems for snowplows. “Sometimes the rear wheels ‘track’ off the pavement,” he explained.
Cote summed up, “It is not a highway safety issue.”
The group voted to take no action.
