(Spirit Lake)– Parking in the right-of-way of county roads in residential areas was a major topic of discussion at Tuesday’s Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting.
It stemmed from a request supervisors received for the establishment of a no parking zone in the Loch Nolls area of 178th Street. A resident living in that area says he can’t see getting in and out of his driveway due to vehicles parked along the road. Sheriff Greg Baloun commented on the longstanding issue, adding it’s a problem in many other residential areas of the county and that whatever they do in this case, could set a precedence…
“This is Loch Nolls. You’ve got Moore Lake, Jones’ Pasture, east side of Big Spirit. I mean there’s so many places where the county right-of-way is used for parking. Could be opening a can of worms for Air BNB’s. We get a lot of complaints about the parking at those.”
Supervisor Kim Wermersen says there’s another issue that needs to be considered in those locations…
“It still comes back and I don’t disagree with that, I think we have to figure something out here, but what happens when these construction crews come in? Where do they park?”
He says the same holds true for lawn care and landscaping firms. Fellow supervisor Steve Dullard suggested that at least in this case, a specific small could be designated as no parking…
“I’d like to make a motion to direct the County Engineer to take a look at the situation to determine if and how far back we need to go with a possible no parking sign. I think no parking signs are, if we put in one that said from here to the corner or whatever, we would be sufficient if you could just limit the areas without limiting the whole thing.”
A motion to that effect directing the County Engineer to further research that was approved four-to-nothing, with one supervisor absent.
County Attorney Jon Martin told the supervisors a notice sent out years ago about parking in county road right-of-ways is NOT an ordinance and therefore, tickets can’t be written on it.
