By Amanda Raymond

amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

The Salisbury City Council honored a high school soccer team and discussed prohibiting parking along a portion of King Street at its meeting on Tuesday.

The Salisbury High School Men’s Soccer Team recently won the State 2A Soccer Championship, the team’s third state title since 2011.

The team was honored with a plaque that proclaimed Feb. 2, 2016 as Salisbury High School Men’s Soccer Day. The team members, Coach Matt Parrish and Assistant Coach Taylor Strode shook the hands of the council, mayor and city clerk before posing for pictures.

“We always love the fun stuff, celebrating our youth in our community who are our future leaders,” Mayor Karen Alexander said.

Later in the meeting, the council discussed parking along a portion of King Street.

The council was asked to consider adopting an ordinance to prohibit parking at all times within and near a curve along the street as it intersects with Summit Avenue.

According to meeting documents, vehicles are currently able to park on both sides of the street, but the roadway does not have a curb or gutter and has limited shoulder room.

Catawba College is the primary landowner along the block and the college and Salisbury Police Department has determined that parking should be restricted.

Meeting documents stated that when events are held and cars are parked on both sides of the street, it is difficult for a single passenger car to pass through the parked cars, which means it would be difficult for emergency vehicles to pass through.

The restriction would be from Lantz Avenue to the start of Summit Avenue.

Signage materials are estimated to be about $100 and costs also include regular man-hours.

Councilman David Post said no one would use King Street to get to Catawba and restricting parking there might cause parking problems in surrounding areas.

“What it could do, by us passing this ordinance, is if we push 25 or 30 cars up to Summit Avenue, which is a main drag … that could clog it up and that could become a safety issue,” he said.

Post said he would like to get more information on how the restriction would affect the area and other solutions that could be put in place.

Councilman Kenny Hardin agreed. He wondered where the responsibility of enforcing the parking restriction would fall.

“Does the owner bear that responsibility or do we get in a situation where we’ve got an understaffed department having to go out and tow vehicles?” he asked.

Councilman Brian Miller said the safety concern needs more immediate attention.

“I think that even if this creates some spillage in other places, it’s probably what we need to do because of that emergency vehicle issue,” he said.

Miller made a motion to approve the adoption of the ordinance and Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell seconded the motion.

The vote was 3-2, with Miller, Blackwell and Alexander voting for the motion and Post and Hardin voting against.

Myra Heard, the city clerk, said because the motion did not get four affirmative votes, the issue will require a second reading at the next council meeting.

Alexander asked that the group responsible for submitting the issue to the council come back with a small area study of parking, and City Manager Lane Bailey said he would ask a representative from Catawba College to attend the next meeting.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the consent agenda, which included authorizing Bailey to execute a supplemental agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the construction of bike lanes on Newsome Road and adopting an ordinance changing regular meeting times.
• Heard highlights and goals presentations from the Housing Advocacy Commission, Tourism and Cultural Development Commission, Transportation Advisory Board and the Tree Board.
• Heard a second quarter financial update.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.