Local drivers must have a place to park their vehicles during their time at home
By DAVE SCHULTZ
Where can the truckers park?
Until recently, over-the-road truck drivers who live in Bluffton had been taking advantage of Walmart’s generosity and parking their trucks in the store’s parking lot along Ind. 1/Main Street. Recently, however, the northside store has changed its policy and is no longer allowing semi-tractor trailers to occupy space in the lot.
That’s led to a search for space. For a while, truck drivers gravitated to the city-owned lot on West Spring Street, just west of the 4-H Park’s north entrance. Recently, however, the city closed that off, too, as Street Commissioner Tim Simpson said that is the place where city crews take excess snow when they plow it off city streets, particularly downtown.
Mayor John Whicker has heard from the truck drivers and asked those present during Tuesday’s meeting of the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety to consider some options.
“We have been asked to consider letting them park (near) the 4-H Park,” Whicker said.
Simpson, however, put two no-parking signs up at that site. That’s left truckers, particularly those who live in the city, without a place to park their vehicles. The tractors can legally park on the street, but the trailers can’t be attached when they do that.
Nate Moyer is a former over-the-road truck driver who now is a dispatcher, and he says the situation needs a solution.
“The No. 1 problem we have on the road is parking,” he said, speaking for truckers.
Simpson said the city can take its excess snow elsewhere, opening up the Spring Street parking lot. The site is good for parking as long as the gravel lot is frozen, but when the ground thaws it could be a problem.
As that discussion was going on, Brandon Harnish of Wells County Lock-Up, a self-storage business, said his company was looking at the possibility of providing parking spaces for semis at its newest facility south of the Harrison Plaza shopping center next to Ind. 1 on the city’s far south side.
Harnish said, however, that he did not want to be in competition with the city to provide the parking spaces.
The Board of Works members — Whicker, Scott Mentzer, and Josh Hunt — were inclined to find a private-business solution to the problem, if it was available, as opposed to a public government-run solution.
Harnish’s operation will need some time to get the site prepared, however, requiring the need for a short-term solution.
So the city may, temporarily, get into the truck parking business.
“Is there anything this group can do, especially for the local guys?” Moyer asked.
While the final details have yet to be worked out, and final approval for the plan must be taken before the Bluffton Common Council at their Feb. 7 meeting.
Harnish suggested the city require a monthly permit fee of $25 a month, which is about what his business will charge when its lot is up and running.
“We’re working on it,” Harnish said.
daves@news-banner.comº
