Newly acquired parking lots in Zelienople will be subject to public parking rules
ZELIENOPLE — No tractor-trailers are allowed in the borough’s newly acquired parking lots, and all parking is off-limits from 3 to 5 a.m.
At its regular meeting Monday, April 10, borough council passed parking regulations that will ensure Zelienople police can enforce rules and regulations in its newly acquired parking lots.
Those using the newly available parking spaces at St. Paul’s Church or English Evangelical Lutheran Church will have the same rules as other public lots, including no parking between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and no performing maintenance or repairs on vehicles. Tractor-trailers are prohibited.
“We converted them into public parking lots through a lease contract, so we treat them like municipal lots,” Police Chief Jim Miller said.
The only difference is that parking is reserved at St. Paul’s Church on Sundays before noon, as was stated in the initial agreement during council’s March 13 meeting.
Violators will be fined $25.
“All of the other parking ordinances are exactly the same, every lot will be treated the same,” Miller said.
Additionally, permit parking in the lot behind the police department will be changed to allow additional borough employees to park.
“It’s too busy over here with the extra employees we’ve had,” Miller said.
According to Miller, residents that used permit parking behind the police department can choose another permit lot, and the borough will transfer the permits.
During the meeting, council renewed its contract with Axon, a manufacturer of stun guns, body cameras and police vehicle cameras and provides evidence software networks with cloud-based records management systems and more.
The contract relates to police vehicle cameras and would last from 2023 to 2028. The agreement was modified to not take effect until March 2024, because it isn’t cost-effective to replace the current vehicle cameras, according to Miller. He said he would rather wait until the future purchase of new police vehicles.
The department has three police vehicles.
On Wednesday, April 12, council members of council will travel to Harrisburg to accept the 2023 Governor’s Award for their collaboration in the Southwest Butler Stormwater Planning Group.
The group consists of Adams, Cranberry, Forward, Jackson, Lancaster and Penn townships as well as Evans City, Harmony, Seven Fields and Zelienople boroughs.
Council President Mary Hess only Zelienople, Cranberry, Harmony and Penn Township will be represented at the ceremony.
“We are the first ever in the commonwealth that put this big of a committee together,” council vice president Drew Mathew said.
Additionally, Lisa Salak was appointed to the park advisory board, and Lyndsey Granata was given full-time employee status with the borough. Granata’s roles were combined into one position of administrative assistant/pool manager.
Hess said Granata has worked with the borough for more than a year and has “done a great job with the park.”