Village investigating closing Park St. for May festival

by Dan McClelland

A request by the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce to close off Park Street for “A Party on Park Street” revival on May 28 is under study by the village board, following discussion about at its March meeting.

“It's tough to close off Park Street,” Mayor Paul Maroun said in opening the discussion that evening. He said the festival is planned for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend which sees many people traveling through the community.

He turned the discussion to Police Chief Eric Proulx to explain the logistics of closing the state highway, as has been done for a number of events in past years.

“In order to close a state highway (which Park St. is) without using police officers” is difficult, he reported.

He said if he applied to the state DOT on behalf of the village to close a state highway, “we either have to man it with police officers or fire police, which I found out today we don't have any.”

“Or we have to have DOT-approved signage (to direct traffic around the selected section) which we do not have.”

“I'm sure you all remember the old wooden signs used at Woodsmen's Days” parade which were painted and pointed to the various ways to local state highways that by-passed the parade route.

“We would have to buy signs that they (the Woodsmen's Days Association) had! It would cost us a lot of money to buy all the signs we'd need!”

He said it requires “a crazy amount” of signs just to close Park Street.

The chief remembered the years when state construction prevented parade organizers from using the Park Street corridor, and the village was spending thousands of dollars a year to direct motorists to the detours.

He said with his current staffing levels, “while I could do it, it would leave me” with no officers for other duties here.

He predicted he wouldn't see extra officers in his department by the time of the late May event- given the amount of time it takes to train new officers. The chief has intimated to the board at recent board meetings he needs a bigger force.

He said there were other options he could explore, but suggested the board get more specifics about the time of street closure from the organizers of the event.

The chief said, in contrast to state highways, the village board could easily close a village street like Cliff Ave. without police officers to direct traffic by simply erecting barricades.

That was done at several times when Cliff Ave. was closed a day or for an evening for events staged by the Big Tupper Brewing in the years it operated there.

The chief said too with the timing of the event on Memorial Day weekend he didn't know “how generous” other law enforcement agencies in the region would be loaning him officers for the event, like they have done in the past.

“Their communities all have their own events going on that weekend!”

He said he could probably free up his schedule to provide officers to direct traffic around the Park Street business district for several hours. The event, however, is planned from noon to 7p.m. that day which will require he have officers posted there from 11a.m. to 8p.m. for the set up and dismantling of the event.

Mayor Maroun wondered if money could be found in the new DRI grant to buy new multi-purpose signs to direct traffic for many types of events here.

Trustee Ron LaScala reported that the chamber of commerce was proposing to stage the event in the uptown business district to eventually grow it into a major event here.

“They were hoping to do something big to help the Park Street” business owners to kick off the summer season.

Village Clerk Mary Casagrain said the two blocks of Cliff Ave. could contain many street vendors for a party the size the chamber is planning.

“We'll look into it and see what we can do,” the mayor promised as the discussion closed.