Yesterday, outside of Highland Elementary School, no parking signs were placed on North Central Ave., which caused some confusion for some parents and guardians waiting to pick up their children. But Crookston Police Chief Darin Selzler explained that these are temporary signs before the new installment of new parking signs in the Crookston School District that have begun to go up around the schools this year for the safety of the students, teachers, and pedestrians when they come in or leave the schools.
Selzler explained that discussions about placing the no parking signs started earlier this year when the city was working with the school district and Polk County to update the school zone signs with illuminated flashing school zone signs at the High School and Highland School. “We added some school zones in front of the Crookston High School on Fisher Ave. and in front of Highland School on North Central Ave. to change the School Zone signs to flashing illuminated signs for more public awareness and address public safety issues,” Crookston Police Chief Darin Selzler explained. “At that time, under the prior Superintendent, we were also discussing the parking situation at Highland, and we had decided as a group to change the parking layout at Highland on the south side of the road on North Central. We eliminated the parking on that side of the road to increase public safety so we wouldn’t have such a bottleneck of traffic in the morning and afternoons for the pickups and drop-offs of the kids.”
Selzler says that when vehicles are parked on both sides of the road, visibility becomes difficult for drivers and pedestrians, especially with bus traffic and pedestrians crossing the street.
Selzler also stated that most or all of the vehicles that were parked on the south side of the road were Highland staff, so the school and police department now ask that they park in the district parking lot while visitors to the school use the school’s visitor’s lot or along the north side of the road. Currently, there are no parking signs placed at that location. However, the department plans to change the signs again to allow temporary parking. “Currently, we did place some signs on the south side. The signs do say “No Parking”; however, those are just temporary until we get some other signs on hand,” Chief Selzler explained. “The signs will be changed to “No Parking, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.” There will be parking in the evenings and on weekends and everything else. We understand that area is used for other athletics and activities, but just for the interim, we will have “No Parking Signs.”
Selzler also noted that for special events at the school, the school and police department is willing to make changes and allow parking on the roadside if needed. “We’ll be willing to work with the community or the school if they have events there. It’s Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., which I think typically, there are not a lot of activities athletic-wise or across the street where it would interfere with parking or just using a parking lot. If we had to open that up for special events, we’d absolutely work with the school with that on whatever is needed.”
The police department has not given us a date on when the signs will arrive, but the department has them on order and plans to install them as soon as they arrive.
