Othello approves Scootney parking restriction and robotic field painter
Aug. 31—OTHELLO — The Othello City Council unanimously approved during Monday's regular meeting a motion to institute a no-parking zone on both sides of East Scootney Street between South First Avenue and South Broadway Avenue and to approve funds for a new robotic field painter.
The agenda for the parking restriction listed the original suggestion as a restriction to parking between the hours of 7 a.m and 4 p.m., but members of the council instead discussed making that restriction 24/7. The restriction is meant to prevent large vehicles such as trucks and trailers from blocking traffic.
"Even after four o'clock before seven o'clock, it's a hassle down there. Those guys come in and park their trucks right on the corners of First and Scootney, they block it up," said Council member Corey Everett. "I've seen cars head-on, headed straight towards each other because they're both trying to get around trucks on both sides of the road and it's a hassle."
Council member Genna Dorow agreed with the suggestion to make the section of the street a 24-hour no-parking zone.
"Pretty much when there's truck traffic or truck trailers parked on either side, it takes it down to one lane. And that is a main street that people come up Broadway and turn on to come over into the residential area," said Dorow.
Everett said that he wanted to see more enforcement against trucks parked where they shouldn't be in other areas of town as well.
"A lot of these trucking companies have decided that they can park their trucks in the city, anywhere they want in the city of Othello, because I see them in the residential sections too," said Everett. "Rather than paying for parking, like parking lots or other places to park their semis at night, they're just parking them on the streets. And it's really getting to be a problem. But Scootney is a huge problem."
Council member Angel Garza said that he agreed that trucks parking on either side of that road was an issue for traffic, but that he wanted to see some sort of option for truckers to be able to park temporarily in order to make appointments and visit businesses along or near the road in question.
The council unanimously voted to approve the 24-hour parking restriction and to deal with temporary parking with some sort of signage or other method they can work out at a later date.
After the trucking discussion, the council discussed a contract with a service called Turf Tank, which provides a robotic field painter that automates the design and implementation of painting athletic fields. The agenda memo for the contract said that the purpose of the subscription is to save money, time and labor on painting city-owned athletic fields and streets.
"The Othello School District has one of these and most school districts in the state of Washington have one of these robots. It saves a lot of labor and time. And it also opens options for several different types of fields," said Public Works Director Curt Carpenter. "These robots can paint an entire football field, all the lines and everything, in half an hour."
According to the agenda memo, the subscription comes with maintenance, and an allotment of paint and since the contract is renewed on a yearly basis the city would be provided new equipment over time and save on paint costs. Carpenter also said that employees can work on other tasks while keeping an eye on the robot, increasing the Public Works Department's efficiency.
The council unanimously approved the contract with Turf Tank for a total of $16,700 for one year of service.
Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.
