Parking and Feasibility

By Joshua Wood, Stevenson Newspapers

Changes are coming to downtown Sidney, specifically around Jackson Street with more two hour limit parking. On March 28, the Sidney City Council passed Resolution 2023-03-01 which creates five two hour parking spots in front of the Nebraska Veteran Affairs building.

The governing body also gave approval to City Manager David Scott to apply for a Certified Local Government (CLG) grant.

Parking Limits

Marshall Hall, the chief building officer for the City of Sidney, told the governing body he had been approached by Fred Wiedeburg of the Cheyenne County Veteran Affairs office about ADA (American with Disabilities Act) compliant parking at 920 Jackson Avenue.

“Due to the slope of the street, and the slope of his entrance, an accessible route turned out to be not very viable and very expensive to do,” said Hall. “We then began to look at the back of the building and, since our meeting, the county has awarded him with the ability to install ADA parking back there.”

With the approval to have ADA compliant parking behind the veteran affairs office, Hall said the request from both him and Wiedeburg was to add five two-hour parking spots in front of the building. According to both Hall and Wiedeburg, the parking in front of the office is usually used for the entire day.

Wiedeburg told the city council that the parking in front of the Cheyenne County Veteran Affairs office was typically employees of surrounding businesses, rather than using the parking square on nearby Hickory Avenue. An impact of that,

said Wiedeburg, was that his clients—who were mostly Vietnam veterans with mobility issues—were forced to park in two-hour spots near other businesses and walk across the street.

The two-hour parking spots, beginning at 920 Jackson Avenue, would be in effect from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during weekdays.

Resolution 2023-03-01, which approved the parking spots, was passed unanimously.

Downtown Feasibility

Scott informed the city council of a potential $45,000 CLG grant which could study the feasibility of vacant downtown buildings. Notification of the grant came to the historic preservation board via the Nebraska State Historical Preservation Office.

Of the $45,000, there would be $30,000 from grant funds and $15,000 matching from the City of Sidney. According to Scott, the $15,000 would not be a cash match but would come in the form of time spent on the project.

“It is going to be work done by the historic preservation board, myself and city staff,” said Scott. “We’ll put in some time on this, gathering information and details that they need and we think we’ll more than meet our commitment to this study. What this study is meant to do is to show details and implementation tactics to rehabilitate and reuse vacant buildings downtown.”

The governing body unanimously voted to give Scott permission to apply for the grant.

The next meeting of the Sidney City Council will be at 5:30 p.m. on April 11 at Sidney City Hall.