Councilors call for snow parking forum

Jan. 12--A group of Gloucester city councilors are calling for a special forum to discuss how or whether the city can better aid residents whose cars were lost in the storm surge floodwaters at Gloucester High School last week, and to discuss options for dealing with parking during storm emergencies in the future.

Councilor at-Large Jamie O'Hara, Ward 1 Councilor Scott Memhard and Ward 5 Councilor Sean Nolan have signed onto a call submitted to City Clerk Joanne Senos for a special session to focus on potential relief for the 73 residents whose cars were ruined when the Gloucester High parking lot flooded during last week's storm surge and astronomical high tide. The lot has been offered as haven by the city for residents who have no off-street parking during snow emergencies and street parking bans, though drivers park there at their own risk.

Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said the city continues to work with state emergency management officials regarding potential aid for those with flooded vehicles, while conceding such funding is unlikely to be recieved.

Meanwhile, Tally's Towing, which towed the vehicles out of the school lot and onto its property in Blackburn Industrial Park, has waived hauling and storage fees for those victims who do not have comprehensive insurance coverage or the money to pay the costs, said Tally's owner Merlin Hunt on Thursday. The mayor's office has reached out to area auto dealers asking that they work with victims on deals for replacement vehicles.

But the councilors want to see if there is more the city can do.

"Everybody's talking about this, but we as a body have to meet to really discuss it," O'Hara said Thursday. "For a lot of the people impacted by this, this has affected their lives in a major way, not only economically but emotionally and in terms of getting to and from jobs. I think we need to put the options on the table."

O'Hara said he has asked the mayor's office whether there is a chance the city's insurance carrier could provide some assistance for the victims. Christopher Sicuranza, the mayor's director of constituent services, said Thursday that Chief Financial Officer John Dunn is looking into that issue. O'Hara said the city owes it to the residents to try to do "all it can to help."

Council President Paul Lundberg said Thursday the forum would likely come as part of the council's next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 23.

"We want to give people a chance to tell us what they need, and see how we can best get a handle on it," Lundberg said. "What we want is a presentation by the administration as to where things stand, and what the city can do that it hasn't already done. That's really our goal."

Other parking options

Memhard said he believes the city needs to look at "the big picture" and "lessons learned from the storm" in terms of avoiding any such threat in the future. He suggested that the city might do better to make the parking lot at Stage Fort Park available to residents during snow emergencies, rather than the Gloucester High lot. He noted that Stage Fort is used as the city's primary snow dumping site when the Department of Public Works removes snow piles from the streets and sidewalks.

"The lot at Stage Fort is much higher," he said, "and it occurs to me that it might be better for parking and the Gloucester High lot could be used as the site for dumping the snow."

Lundberg, however, said that added snow could pose additional flooding problems at the high school; the building somehow escaped any damage from last week's storm surge. He noted that the high school site is "handy" because it sits near where many people live on surrounding streets. Similarly, while O'Hara suggested the city could encourage more people to park at lots such as O'Maley Innovation Middle School, that would not be practical for residents of lower Washington Street or Centennial and Western avenues.

"That's the dilemma, getting people from Point A to Point B, recognizing this would be during a storm," he said.

Up at Tally's, Hunt said he has had salvage crews simply hauling away cars that were fully insured from the company's storage lot over the last two days, while insurance adjusters and residents who lost their vehicles have been coming by to assess the damage and consider their options.

"We want to help however we can," he said of his offer to waive fees for those who do not have the necessary insurance coverage or the means to cover the costs.

A big and costly hassle

Joel Emerson, who lives on Summer Street, teaches at St. John's Prep in Danvers and saw the 2015 Subaru Impreza he had bought new rendered inoperable by the storm surge. He said he had been "on edge" for seven days waiting for word about his insurance coverage, and found Thursday the adjuster was offering $13,600 for the vehicle.

"I've done the research and can't find anything near that for a comparable car," he said Thursday. "Plus, all of us (parked at GHS) have to pay a deductible (his is $500) for basically doing what the city asked us to do during the storm."

He said, that since the storm, he has been sharing rides with his partner, who works at Beverly Hospital, but that has meant leaving home at least an hour earlier each morning.

"I'm grateful no one got hurt in all this, and I know it's not the end of the world and it could have been a lot worse," Emerson said. "But I'm frustrated. The whole thing has been one big hassle."

Hunt said that most of the cars towed to Tally's were insured.

"But it's hard to see the people come in that don't have insurance and don't have any money," he saidd. "Some of them have just taken the plates off (the vehicles) and walked away. It's very sad."

Ray Lamont can be reached at 978-675-2705, or rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.

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