BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick Town Council will hold a public hearing tonight to consider changes to the traffic pattern and parking at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School.

The changes would affect the access road at the school that, until now, was one-way during dismissal time.

Also, parents picking up children have been allowed to park on the north side of the street during dismissal.

In a memo to Town Manager John Eldridge, Brunswick Police Commander Mark Waltz outlines observations he and Principal Jean Skorpa have made over the last few years.

The memo said that the one-way traffic works well at dismissal and due to the large volume of vehicles in the morning, it would be reasonable to believe it would work well then too.

There was also concern that the current one-way signs with times on them are confusing already and putting more than one time on them would make matters even worse. Waltz wrote that compliance would be expected to increase if the road were one-way at all times except for a small portion of the road between Spring Street and the exit of the access loop.

As for parking, Waltz expressed concerns, both in the memo and in person before the council on Feb. 1, that the access road was not designed for parking, making the road narrower than intended.

Children stepping between vehicles makes for a potential hazard to children trying to

At the Feb. 1 council meeting, Waltz was asked if there was sufficient parking in the lot at dismissal time. At the time, Waltz answered that there were about 15 to 20 open spaces by his estimate in the portion of the lot between Armory Street and Stanwood Street.

Waltz said that since that meeting, police and school staff counted the open spaces at dismissal, finding 44 on Feb. 2, 40 on Feb. 3 and 31 on Feb. 4. Waltz clarified that this count did not take into consideration any spaces that were unusable or piled in with snow.

Also tonight, the council will vote on renewing their contract with town attorneys Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau and Pachios, LLP. If approved, Stephen Langsdorf will remain the primary attorney for the town.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com