SAUGUS — Police will recommend whether parents should be prevented from parking on one side of Talbot Street after a resident raised safety concerns.
The Board of Selectmen and Town Manager Scott Crabtree will ask the Police Department to make a recommendation on whether or not signs should be installed after hearing from John Cannon, who lives at Heritage Heights, a nearby senior housing complex.
Many motorists abandon their vehicles on both sides of the street during school pick-up times, causing an already narrow roadway to be nearly impassable, he said. He worries that if an ambulance or fire truck needs to reach the complex during that time, they won’t make it through.
The demographics of Heritage Heights include about a dozen people in their 90s, more than 40 people in their 80s, more than 30 in their 70s, eight people in their 60s, and several younger people with disabilities, said Cannon.
Kelly Moss, principal of the Waybright Elementary School, said parents line up on Talbot Street before the complex and wait until the small buses arrive. After they leave, the line progresses around the school’s traffic circle.
“As we have done this for years, we pretty much know which student the car is picking up,” said Moss. “The students hear their name and move up to approximately where their car will pick them up. Cars pull up to the last no parking sign and students get in the cars. They move out and the next group pulls up. It is very efficient and all the students are picked up within approximately seven minutes.”
Cannon said the system seems to work, but the parents who don’t wait in line are the problem.
Talbot Street resident Patricia St. Pierre said during the winter, snowbanks make the street more narrow, and parents choose to park at the end of driveways where the street seems wider.
“I say ‘excuse me, that’s my driveway’ and they say ‘oh, I’m just going to the school,'” said St. Pierre. “They don’t care how they park. They don’t care what you say to them. It’s getting bad.”
William Stewart, commissioner of the Saugus Housing Authority, called it a very dangerous situation.
“You cannot get a fire truck through that street at school closing time,” he said.
Crabtree said that he will work with the police department and inform Moss and the School Committee.
“We need to create a comprehensive plan that works for everyone,” he said. “One of the things we are working on with the new school is trying to figure out long-term, how we can incentivize people taking buses to school and getting the fees down.”
