T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Shadyside Councilman Brandon Parr asks Police Chief Don Collette if he can park on any sidewalk as long as it isn’t painted yellow.

SHADYSIDE — After some confusion, village council passed an ordinance Monday that will allow the All American Wash and Tan to paint the curb in front of its building yellow to prohibit parking.

“They put in a new curb and want to paint it yellow because they do not want people parking on their sidewalk. There are a lot of people who pull in there and take their clothes in, and the police chief cannot enforce it without an ordinance,” Mayor Robert Newhart said.

Councilwoman Melanie Haswell asked if residents are even allowed to park in the area that the business wants to make a no parking zone since it is part of the sidewalk.

Newhart replied that they aren’t supposed to park there but it do anyway. He stressed that the police department can’t enforce a rule that isn’t in the village’s ordinance book.

Councilman Brandon Parr then asked Police Chief Don Collette if residents are allowed to park on the sidewalk. He replied that they are not, adding that regardless of whether they are allowed to, they pull up and park on the sidewalk in front of the business every day.

Parr then asked if a curb is not painted yellow, would he legally be allowed to park his vehicle on any sidewalk in the village.

“There’s an ordinance about parking on the sidewalk, we can’t park on the sidewalk. Is that considered a sidewalk or a driveway?” Collette said.

Newhart replied that the area in question is a sidewalk in front of the building that turns into a driveway, which he believes is the root of the confusion.

“I know they spent a ton of money up there to replace all of that concrete in front of that building. If that was my money, I wouldn’t want people pulling in there every day when you got a whole parking lot on the side and in the back of the building. It’s common sense,” Collette said. “Somebody pulls up there every day to get a newspaper, I know two guys that do it every morning. I don’t blame the people for not wanting that tore up.”

Parr replied that he agrees with Collette and that he also wouldn’t want people parking on his sidewalk if he were the business owner. He then asked if the curb needs painted yellow or if council could just tell residents not to park there.

Collette reiterated that he is not able to enforce no parking there unless it is painted yellow.

“If that’s the case, paint it,” Parr said.

Councilman Robert “Bushwacker” Gorrell asked if the curb could be painted red. Collette sharply replied that red designates parking only for fire trucks.

Council then voted unanimously to pass the ordinance allowing All American Wash and Tan to paint the curb in front of its business yellow to indicate no parking is allowed.

Resident Jay Johnson then addressed council. He said that the family of former mayor Ron Kaluger approached him about wanting to plant a tree in the median of the historic loop in his memory.

Kaluger died in May, and his family believes that planting a tree and putting a plaque next to the tree would be a fitting way to honor the late mayor.

“There is an open spot that we need a tree, and they want to plant a tree and put some type of plaque there and I thought that should be council’s decision,” Johnson said. “My only concern is if we allow that then how do we allow 1,500 other people who say they want to plant something, so I wanted to get your input. I think they are wanting to do this Saturday.”

Gorrell replied that if council were to allow the former mayor’s family to plant a tree in his memory it would have to be the same type of tree that is already planted in that median. He added that planting the tree would be fine, but he believes adding the plaque could open up a can of worms that he doesn’t want to deal with – meaning that if council allows one plaque, then several other residents may want to put plaques for their loved ones in the median.

Johnson suggested that maybe if that were to happen, council could allow memorial plaques only for people who served the village.

Newhart replied that although he believes that would be a great way to honor the residents who served the village, it would still be way too many to allow in the median.

He then asked Johnson if he could put council in touch with Kaluger’s family to see if they could all come to an agreement, and Johnson agreed.