Louderman suggests Hannibal Traffic Committee examine Edwards St. situation

HANNIBAL, Mo. — For the second straight Hannibal City Council meeting, parking on Edwards St. took center stage.

Edie Graupman owns a rental property at 421 Edwards St. next door to two homes that have been on the Hannibal Building Commission’s demolition list for several years, and she believes tearing down these homes would alleviate some of the parking issues along this stretch of road.

“Both of these houses have been on the building commission’s demolition list for more than five years,” Graupman said.

Graupman served on the building commission when the houses at 423 and 425 Edwards St. were put on the demolition list, but the homes still stand.

“423 doesn’t even have a front anymore,” Graupman said. “It has a tarp to cover the front. You can move the tarp and walk in the house. That’s how dilapidated the property is.”

Graupman said these homes have long been the source of parking frustrations.

“Any given time you can go up Edwards Street and there are multiple cars parked in the front yard. There are trailers parked sideways,” Graupman said. “There was a camper in the backyard. The camper actually hit our house and it ripped the roof off when they went to move it out. If these houses were torn down five years ago, would the parking be a problem?”

At the July 16 city council meeting, the council approved a request from Councilman Charlie Phillips to designate Edwards Street between Fulton and Guernsey a no parking zone.

“I travel that road daily,” Phillips said. “The request I made to make that part of the street no parking is valid. I have a truck, and I use a trailer sometimes. I cannot get past parked cars at certain times. If the residents on that street do not park with their wheels touching the curb, passage is severely restricted.”

The narrow street and steep grade present concerns especially for emergency vehicles attempting to navigate around parked vehicles.

“I can’t really describe how narrow and steep this one-block-long part of Edwards is,” Phillips said. “I would hate to see emergency or fire fail because of a bad parking job.”

Graupman’s current tenant — a mother of three — has to park on Fulton Avenue.

“Could you imagine having three babies and trying to walk up Fulton?” Graupman said. “We have a tenant who wants to break the lease, and we have a house we can’t rent because she can’t park at it. Can’t we just make these people tear down the houses that are dilapidated? We’re being punished for something someone else hasn’t taken care of. It’s not fair.”

The council — with the exception of Phillips — agreed with Director of Central Services Andy Dorian’s recommendation to make the north side of Edwards St. a no parking zone and allow parking on the south side.

As Mayor Barry Louderman noted, however, this likely is not the final decision made on this street’s parking status.

“I would much rather see this in front of the traffic committee and have them go investigate and see what’s going on and bring it back,” Louderman said. “Just like handicap parking or moving parking from one side of the street to the other, I think that’s why we have these committees. They need to take a look at it and weigh in on it.”