Business

Saluda to enforce Main Street parking limit

By Bill Moss, Published: June 23, 2012

SALUDA — Saluda merchants and downtown employees will have to find new parking spaces if they're in the habit of parking all day on Main Street.

Town Commissioners voted this month to enforce a four-hour parking limit on the street to free up more spaces for shoppers and tourists. Town police officers will enforce the parking limit seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., said Monica Pace, administrative assistant for the town. Violations carry a $25 fine. "You can get a $25 ticket for any four-hour violation," she said, meaning an all-day parker could get fined $50.
In other action last week, the board:
• Recognized the Saluda Community Land Trust for its work fighting kudzu. Joe Cooper of the Polk County Appearance Commission presented an award to the organization for cutting back, pulling and spraying the pesky southern weed on a bank along Ozone Road at Thompson Road. Nora Anderson accepted the award.
• Reviewed the draft of an ordinance on trimming back foliage along roadsides. The board will take up the ordinance in August. For now, the board authorized town crews to cut back overgrown bushes and trees 18 inches from the roadside.
Saluda will replace old signs.• Appropriated $5,000 to replace the town's old signposts with new reflective green signs. The board has not decided whether it would keep the historic road signs. "Everybody loves those but the EMTs do not," Pace said. They're often obscured by cars or foliage during the day and hard to see at night. "I'm sure they're ancient," Pace said. "It's all we've ever had."
• Directed the town attorney to look at a request to amend the town's golf cart ordinance. The town allows electric golf carts. A town resident wanted permission to use a gas-powered golf cart. The town has issued 22 permits for golf carts, which must pass an inspection and have safety equipment.