Village Amends Vehicles & Traffic Code

By Elise Fisch

The Village of Warwick Board of Trustees met via Zoom video-conference on Mon., Aug. 17 to hold a work session to review amendments to the local law within the village code Chapter 135: Vehicles and Traffic prior to holding their regularly scheduled meeting. The video of the meeting is available to the public on the Village of Warwick Facebook page and through the Village website at www.villageofwarwick.org. 

Most of the amendments will be correcting long overlooked inconsistencies, such as three of the village’s four traffic lights being listed in the code as stop signs. Additionally, the number of designated loading zones for delivery vehicles in the village will be decreased: three loading zones on Main St. will be reduced to one and the loading zone on South St. will be removed.

Municipal Parking Times Increased

The allotment of time for parking in the municipal lot on South St. will be increased from three hours to four in order to remain consistent with the four-hour limit placed on parking in the lot located in the front of CVS on Main St., and to allow for more time for visitors to patronize village businesses. Ticketing will still be enforced by the parking enforcement officer.

Trustee Bill Lindberg proposed erecting a sign in the municipal parking lots specifying that the number of hours limited to parking refers to the parking lot itself, and that guests should remove their vehicles from the premises when the time is up. The reason for the sign, Lindberg explained, is to prevent Village merchants and employees from taking a four-hour parking spot and then moving their vehicle to another spot within the same lot after the four hours have passed. In this way, the village would benefit from those parking spots being reserved for patrons of the village, rather than workers or residents. 

Trustee Eileen Patterson suggested notifying business owners as to the locations of the 12-hour parking lots and encouraging them to have their employees park in those areas.

The topic of parking has been, and will continue to be, an ongoing conversation within the Board of Trustees, especially as businesses and Board members attempt to bring customers to patronize the village in the wake of the still-present coronavirus threat. A new metering system, perhaps an automated kiosk, was briefly discussed, and may be on the horizon for the Village of Warwick.

Great Halloween Hunt

On Sun., Oct. 25, the Warwick Rotary Club will be holding The Great Halloween Hunt, a scavenger hunt event. Participants will receive a list of clues that will lead them to businesses around the village. Each business will hold a piece of the puzzle, and once participants solve the puzzle, they may bring their solution to the Rotary Club for a prize. The event is not intended to be a competition, but a fun, safe activity for families during the Halloween season.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Village Board of Trustees will take place on Tues., Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Note the change in the day due to the Labor Day. The meeting will be held via Zoom and may be viewed by the public on Facebook Live. Visit the Village website, www.villageofwarwick.org or the Village Facebook page for more information.