Parking problems persist along Saugus street

SAUGUS – Residents along Adams Avenue are not ready to let parking issues die, but they might be ready to work together.Selectmen have been hearing from Adams Avenue residents for more than a year concerning speeding and parking issues. Tuesday, the board revisited six no parking signs that were put up last June in front of house numbers 120-124 and 117-125. The hope was the signs would alleviate some traffic issues that have long plagued the area. Neighbors were divided on the issue of installing the signs and Tuesday were just as divided about their effectiveness.Sandra Lyons, who opposed the signs in June, had not changed her mind. She said the logic behind putting six signs in one relatively short span while the rest of the street remains un-posted stuns her.”It’s about logic and doing what’s right,” she said. “I’m asking you to take the signs down.”Another resident, Glen Brownell from 121 Adams Ave., had harsher words, but they were directed at his neighbors who asked for the signs.Brownell said prior to the signs going in, friends of his teenage daughter would sometimes park in front of the house while chatting. That would at times, he said, give his neighbor cause to come out and yell “vulgar, nasty words that you wouldn’t say to an enemy on the street.””There is no need for this,” he said.Another neighbor said he believed the signs were simply the result of a neighborhood dispute, which selectmen didn’t refute.Selectman Michael Kelleher said he felt the sign issue was, from the start, a neighborhood squabble the board should stay clear of. That said, however, he didn’t disagree with colleague Stephen Castinetti’s request for a site visit.While Lyons had provided pictures of the area, Castinetti said they didn’t do the problem justice and he would like to see the area with the signs and see the traffic firsthand.The Barkers, who primarily asked for the signs because they admitted people park in front of their home and block their driveway, were ready to work with their neighbors.Jean Barker said she asked her neighbors on previous occasions not to park in front of her home, but she said cars still parked there.”We asked nicely and got into all this argument,” she said, referring to the public hearings with the board.One resident suggested the board simply take down all the signs, but the one in front of the Barker home but board members were not so quick to relinquish the signs.”We’ve already set the meeting, let’s just go up and look at the problem and see,” Kelleher said.Selectmen will convene Saturday morning at 9 a.m. on Adams Avenue.”Just don’t park there,” Brownell added with a laugh. “You can park in my driveway.”