Delphos May Have New Way to Pay Water Bill

A Novel Approach to Balancing the Budget

Delphos cops may have found a way to help the city deal with the water problem. Residents are being handed parking tickets for parking the wrong way in front of their houses. The fine is only $5, but the concept will go a long way toward helping the city deal with financial issues associated with the water treatment plant or some other fiasco.

And you say "How is a $5 fine going to do much?" Well, just drive around town and see how many people park the wrong way in front of their houses. I did a check of 3 square blocks and was amazed to find no less than twelve cars parked the wrong way. Now that $60 is one third of the minimum payment utility bill for a family of one. But because these cars were parked in the wrong direction, I'm thinking not everyone got the message. Just the ones that got tickets.

A few other things residents need to watch out for is parking too close to a stop sign that's erected in the middle of their yard, parking on gravel that's never been paved in front of their property, and parking more than 12 inches from curbs that haven't been installed yet. So I guess we're all doomed. As it is, not even the elite in this town are blessed with curbs, gutters, and pavement.

To be fair, it is not legal in most towns to park in the wrong direction. It's also not legal to speed. But the lights on fifth street are conveniently set to encourage drivers to drive faster than the speed limit or get caught by no less than three lights between Elida Road and Jefferson St. going west. I do drive that route daily (as most probably do) and have gotten aggravated at the lights for some time. So I decided to check for myself - I sat at a red light at FT Jennings Rd and waited for the light to turn green. I started as quickly as was feasible and increased speed to 40 miles per hour, 5 miles over the limit. I got through the light on Pierce St. but had to break quickly or risk going through a red light at Franklin St. I then waited for the light to change and again increased speed quicker than I normally would to see if I could beat the light at Main. I would have had to do 45 to go through a yellow light. It's no wonder we have a lot of accidents on this stretch of road. Would it not be better to adjust the lights so that a person doing 30-35 mph could drive through all the lights without having to stop? After all, it is the main road through town. By setting them slower, people would naturally slow down and navigate the roadway safer to avoid having to stop. EVERYBODY WINS! Well, maybe not the city because they would lose the revenue from citing cars for speeding or accidents.

Residents are being told not to park closer than 12 feet from a stop sign. I assume that means stop lights also. This is a good rule! Cars parked to close to an intersection make it difficult for others to nagivate the intersection. Most cities deal with this issue by painting the curb in each direction so drivers know not to park there. In lies the problem. Delphos doesn't have curbs. And where they do, there is not always paint. The intersection at Fifth and Jefferson is a great example. On Jefferson by the Grind Restaurant (The old KFC for the diehards) there are parking spots painted on the road right up to the intersection, making it hard for drivers to see. Yes, there is a light there, but I have, many times, looked at the car parked in the first spot and though it was part of the flow of traffic. It is especially dangerous for our children walking across that intersection. The parking spots need to be moved back away from the intersection now, before someone gets hurt.

Delphos has a lot of room to grow. It was an aspiring community once. It can be again. But the residents need to be assured that the laws of the community are fair and that they are the same for all. You can't site one into court for having an unregistered vehicle in their yard if you don't site all who are guilty. But that's what happens. Sometimes it seems that the laws are upheld only when someone complains. That makes it easy for anyone to do harm to their neighbor just because they're upset about something. Make an anonymous call and get your neighbor in trouble. Now that's the way to run a community!

Also - Delphos doesn't even have pavement where people are supposed to park. Is that because of finances - maybe. Is that because there is no storm sewers and we are protecting the residents from floods - could be partially true. But there are places in this town where there are storm sewers and no asphalt so the reasoning is not steadfast.

If we are to aspire our community to grow, we need to get along and address problems fairly for everyone. It would be better to contact residents and say "We have a lot of people parking the wrong way on the streets in front of their houses. We need to correct this within the next two weeks or the police will start handing out tickets." That's the way you get people to conform without thinking that they are being singled out.