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Parking a problem at McIntosh

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

The parking situation at McIntosh High School is bad and doesn’t promise to get any better until Christmas, school officials say.

Continued construction on a new physical education facility has permanently deleted 80 parking spaces from the Walt Banks Road campus. Another 20 spaces were lost to construction on the school’s cafeteria. The project is scheduled for completion in December, said Principal Tracie Fleming.

Until then, only seniors and a few select underclassmen who need a car are being allowed to park on campus, where spaces are at a premium, Fleming said.

A number of teachers have permission to park at Holy Trinity Catholic Church next door but students are forbidden to park there, Fleming said.

The majority of the junior class is flat out of luck, unless they want to drive a golf cart.

Hundreds of McIntosh students are again tooling to campus each morning in the motorized carts, thanks to a state law changed by the Legislature last spring that restores driving privileges to 15-year-olds.

The school’s parking area designated especially for golf carts appears overflowing, but administrators are carving out space on the grass for more, Fleming said.

One problem, Fleming said, is that many students have balked at paying the $40 permit fee to park golf carts on campus even though there is room.

That, plus the car parking crunch, has led many students to park on Prime Point, which runs behind the school’s stadium alongside Ga. Highway 54.

Fleming said there is irony in students parking along Prime Point and risking a $45 parking ticket when they could park on campus by purchasing a $40 permit.

“But that’s not an issue for us because it’s off campus,” Fleming said. “There’s nothing we can do about it because the street is basically a street and they can park there.”

The mass of cars mingled with golf carts parked up and down Prime Point was a problem the first few days of school in August, said Police Chief James Murray.

“The first couple of weeks of school we were called over there and some of the vehicles were parked illegally,” said Murray. “So we give them a chance.”

The city installed “No Parking” signs along the south side of Prime Point and handed out tickets to a number of students who were blocking driveways or fire hydrants, Murray said.

Students seem to understand they can’t park in the parking lots reserved for the professional offices and businesses along the winding road, he said.

“We’re trying to give everybody the benefit of the doubt,” Murray said. “As long as the kids aren’t parking along hydrants, we’re OK.”

Murray said patrol officers keep a sharp eye on the situation each morning and afternoon, and students have already established a routine.

“It’s the same people parking in the same spots every day,” said Murray. “And the students always seem to try to be good at where they park.”