By CANDY NEAL
cneal@dcherald.com

HUNTINGBURG — With the new and continuing development of the Hunters Crossing subdivision, city officials must make decisions about street parking.

The Huntingburg Board of Public Works and Safety recommended to the Huntingburg Common Council to restrict parking on one side of two streets that have homes.

The recommendation is to have no parking on the north side of Raider Court from the cul-de-sac to Niehaus Trail and no parking on the west side of Niehaus Trail from Stellar Way to Raider Court.

Stellar Way has already been designated as having no parking on the north side of the street.

Street Superintendent Jason Stamm asked for direction at the public works board’s Thursday meeting because his department must go out and put up signs to mark the roads.

Police Chief Art Parks and Fire Chief Scott Patberg said they had no preference on which side of the street should be designated as no parking. But they wanted to make sure that vehicles aren’t parked too close to the street corners, to allow space for emergency vehicles to be able to turn onto the streets. Stamm said he would like for them to go with him to the streets to show him how far back from the corner parking should be restricted; they agreed. That way, Stamm will know how much of the curb his department needs to color yellow, which means no one can park there, he explained.

The board also:

• Heard from Parks that the police station’s drop box for prescription drugs will be removed because the cost of disposing of the drugs is consistently increasing. CVS has a drop off box available for the public, he said.

• Learned that a draft of the city’s updated unified development ordinance will be presented at the Huntingburg Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 25. The public works board and city council will be invited to hear the presentation, Planning Director Paul Lake said.

• Agreed to cover the 25% match should the city be awarded a Community Crossings grant this year. The grant application will be for work on First Street, and the match will be no more than $340,000, Mary Austin of engineering firm Clark Dietz told the board. The application is due Jan. 29 and awards are expected to be announced in late February, Austin said.

• Approved a contract with VS Engineering to conduct engineering services as needed throughout the year; the total amount will not exceed $20,000. The city has similar contracts with several engineering firms, Community Development Director Rachel Steckler told the board.