The Select Board ordered a private parking sign put up in front of a block of Main Street businesses be taken down.
During its meeting on Monday, the board discussed a request from the owner of the yellow storefront on Main Street, which includes the Sky Bridge Cafe, to include the parking spaces in front of those stores in line repainting efforts on the rest of Main Street in the past weeks.
The spaces were left unpainted because the storefront owner had claimed they were part of the property, and had placed a sign on the area proclaiming parking there was solely for patrons or tenants.
After reviewing plans from the redesign of Main Street and past meeting minutes, the Select Board concluded that the spaces were in the town’s right-of-way, and rightfully belonged to Wilton, not a private person. They voted 2-0 to repaint the spaces, but to send a notice to the building owner that the private parking sign would have to be removed.
“If the assertion is that the town owns it, until someone can prove me wrong, I would say that is town property and no one should be putting up private parking signs,” said Select Board member Bill Condra.
In other issues, the board discussed the recent annual Summerfest, which traditionally closes down Main Street to accommodate vendors and two entertainment stages. Department of Public Works Director Steve Elliott suggested to the board that for future Summerfests, the town not block off access to Maple or Park Streets, which is the easiest detour around Main Street. While there are other ways around, they are not easily found by drivers unfamiliar with the area, said Elliott. He also said there had been an issue with the location of vendors stalls on either side of the street, not leaving enough for an emergency vehicle lane. The board agreed to follow up with the Summerfest organizers to do a debrief of the festival and discuss options for next year.