Semi truck parking on West H causes concern for Council

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook City Council discussed solutions Monday night to alleviate the number of semi trucks parking on both sides of West H Street near the U.S, Highway 83.

At issue is the 1500 block of West H Street, that exits onto U.S. Highway 83 and borders the north side of Holiday Inn Express. Upon the request of Councilman Jerry Calvin, who lives near the area, the council was asked Monday night to designate a no-parking designation on the north side of the 1500 block of West “H” Street, west of the existing alley, because of the number of semi trucks parked on both sides of the street makes the street extremely narrow. City Manager Nate Schneider said at the council meeting that there are safety concerns about vehicles entering the street from the highway and he didn’t want to see traffic back-up onto the highway.

Kirti Tivedi and Sean Davis, both of Avant Enterprises, developer of the Holiday Inn Express in McCook, spoke to the council and said they are more than willing to address the issue. “Let’s make sure we don’t add to any unsafe parking in the area… let’s resolve it,” Trivedi said. He continued that he wants to keep the truck commerce, “but how can we do that safely?” Although the semi’s are usually gone by early morning, Trivedi supported the idea of limiting parking to only one side of the street.

Councilman Calvin said that if parking was not allowed on the north side, there would be plenty of space for traffic to flow in both directions. The semi’s are parked along the street a couple of nights each week.

Another idea cited was installing a loading/unloading sign on the opposite side of the street, to allow truck traffic to access the irrigation business located there.

No action was taken as it was a discussion item only, with city staff to return to the council at some point with a voting item to address the issue.