Parking Issues Arise During Weekend Festival

Borough officials and organizers agree that this year’s  was one of the most successful.

 Kevin Flannery told council Tuesday night that crowd estimates reached close to 10,000 for the day.

While police were providing child-safety activities as part of a crime prevention program, officers also were busy handling numerous parking enforcement issues in the downtown area.

“Our success … created a parking problem,” Mayor Brian Jeffe said.

 Chief James Ersher said the department wrote 25 parking tickets during the seven-hour event to vehicles that ignored the no-parking signs on Thorn Street between Broad and Walnut streets. Many of the drivers were upset to find a ticket attached to their windshield, he said.

Flannery said the street was “clearly marked no parking” for safety reasons so that buses, ambulances and other emergency vehicles could get through. While some drivers parked in and walked, or used the free parking provided at , others assumed the weekend meant they were in the clear to park illegally.

“We had people parked there who said, ‘It’s free parking on Saturday,’ ” Flannery said. 

Instead of writing a typical $100 traffic citation, the police department gave violators a break and issued orange tickets at $25 apiece.

Jeffe said people in the past have used  for parking, but the church closed its lot for a wedding. Jeffe said he planned to meet with administrators about using the middle school's parking when the building reopens next year.

Despite the parking quagmire, officials said the event went well.

Councilwoman Susan Aleshire said she was impressed when she arrived a half-hour early to the festival and saw people already waiting to get in.

Jeffe thanked the Kiwanis Club of Sewickley, the Quaker Valley Rotary, Sewickley Police and for their work. The Kiwanis Club and Rotary sponsor the festival.

“I thought it was a tremendous success,” Jeffe said.