The in basket: Charlie Holt writes to say,”East Hilldale Road (off Beach Drive at the entrance to Manchester State Park) was a zoo Saturday morning, April 11. The problem was overflow cars from the games at the South Kitsap Eastern Little League ball fields.
“I’m hoping this was an opening day event and will not be happening every week,” Charlie said. “I counted 55 cars parked on the shoulder, all in plain view of No Parking signs all the way to the state park. Some cars were two to three tire widths over the white fog line, effectively reducing Hilldale to a one-lane road. There were several head-on events that could have led to an accident. It was downright dangerous.”.
“The Eastern Little League billboard says Phase 2 is complete (five ball fields) with a total of nine ball fields planned,” he said. “Hopefully, more parking will be built before more ball fields are.”
The out basket: It was opening day, according to South Kitsap Eastern’s Web site, www.eteamz.com/SKELL/, which has a lot of information about the league.
It’s vice president, Kevin Archuleta, said league officials also were alarmed by what they saw that day. They have adequate parking on the field property, he said, but the illegal parkers may not have known that. I would guess that some may not have wanted to fight the crowds trying to exit after the opening ceremony.
They are working to make the availability of off-road parking better understood by players’ parents, Kevin said. The following Saturday, there were only two cars parked on Hilldale, and both got tickets from a deputy sheriff.
Deputy Scott Wilson, spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said they weren’t informed of the illegal parking on the 11th. It’s OK to use 9-1-1 to report it, he said. “Patrol or traffic deputies may not always be aware of situations such as these unless advised by the public while the violation(s) are in progress.”
Word of the opening day problems evidently prompted the enforcement the next Saturday.
For the record, while the No Parking signs make all parking on Hilldale illegal, anyone who parks on the shoulder anywhere with their tires on the traveled side of the edge (fog) line is illegally parked and subject to being cited.
“It was downright dangerous”
I doubt that this is accurate. While it may have been congested, I highly doubt that it was “downright dangerous” on the 15 mph road. Why are people’s reactions so extreme? A lot of people wanted to go watch kids play baseball…do we have to make it such a negative thing even if it was slightly inconvenient for some?