LYNN — The Lynn School Committee adopted a policy to reduce the number of schools available for parking during snow emergencies, but added alternative parking options for residents.
For the past two years, all of the city’s 26 schoolyards have been kept open during snow emergencies.
Under the new policy, 14 public school lots — Sisson Elementary/Pickering Middle School, Lynn English High School, Ingalls Elementary School, Marshall Middle School, Hood Elementary School, Brickett Elementary School, Harrington Elementary School, Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, Drewicz Elementary School, Connery Elementary School, Lynn Classical High School, Breed Middle School, Callahan Elementary School and Lincoln-Thomson Elementary School — will be open to residents during snowstorms with a parking ban in effect.
There will be several alternative free options to replace the schools which will no longer be available. Manning Field, the Johnson Street lot and the Lynn Public Schools Administration Building will be open for the first time. KIPP Academy, Barry Park, Great Woods Road, Pennybrook Road and the dog park are available. Residents can also pay to park at the Wyoma Square City Lot and the MBTA garage.
“It’s a lot more places to park,” said School Committee member John Ford. “It’s a big step forward for the people in the city. Our first responsibility is to the kids. We also have to consider the seniors and the other people that have to park. It’s a public safety thing.”
If the parking ban is lifted before 9 p.m., residents have two hours to remove cars from lots. If the ban is lifted after that time, residents have until 6 a.m. the next day to remove cars from lots.
The School Committee voted in January 2017 to keep all the school lots open following a snowstorm that month where school gates were locked. Members of the City Council cut the locks to allow for parking due to what City Council President Darren Cyr described as “a sense of urgency” and “concern for the public’s safety.”
Schoolyard gates had been installed the previous summer to prevent car owners from parking on the school lots during snow emergencies because residents often failed to leave the school property by school start time following a storm.
The School Committee unanimously voted to adopt the policy on Thursday night, the first time the panel had made a decision on schoolyard parking since the 2017 vote.
Lynn Fire Lt. Paul Ricchi, the city’s emergency management director, created a working group tasked with coming up with a proposal to make the snow emergency process more efficient. He said the schools were chosen by trying to strike a balance between convenience and safety. Sometimes it was dangerous for certain lots to be open.
James Lamanna, the city’s assistant city solicitor, said it was difficult to plow around cars at certain schools. Some of the concerns were if lots weren’t cleared out in time, officials would be forced to call off school, which adds expenses and adds to the school year.
Mayor Thomas M. McGee, chairman of the School Committee, said there were concerns raised on a number of schools used in the past, which proved problematic. He said the proposal addresses some of those concerns with schools that weren’t working and adds new options which hadn’t been available in the past.
“There was a lot of work that went into this in finding the right policy and being consistent to make sure there was limited impact when we have a snow emergency,” McGee said.
