By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

Goffstown High School students will have to find a new place to park their cars, following the enactment of an ordinace barring them from parking on Wallace Road.

The board of selectmen enacted an ordinance that prohibits students from parking within a half-mile radius of the high school between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Police are placing warning letters on the windshields of violators and, once a sign prohibiting parking on Wallace Road has been erected, offenders will receive $10 parking violations.

The ordinance was passed due to complaints by Wallace Road residents whose mailboxes, recyclable materials bins and driveway access were blocked by cars and because of related safety issues.

Goffstown Police Chief Michael French said a number of residents issued concerns to the Highway Safety Committee pertaining to pedestrian safety.

He said students who parked on the road often open doors without looking for oncoming traffic and that students often walked in groups of three or four on the road, blocking traffic.

French said a handful of residents complained about trash and cigarette butts found on their property. French said since the warning letters have been issued, the number of cars parked on the road have been drastically reduced.

The ordinance went into effect on May 2 and a sign warning not to park on the road will be put up soon. He said student options for parking are at the school, arranging permission with a landowner on Wallace Road to park at their home and carpooling, which he suggests.

"In the winter, when the snowbanks prohibited parking, no cars were there," he said. "They obviously found somewhere else to park."

Before the ordinance was passed, more than 70 cars were parked in a half-mile radius on Wallace Road, said French.

Currently, there are 335 available parking spaces at Goffstown High School. Teachers and staff require 150 of those spaces, leaving 185 spaces for students to vie for in the mornings. Half the school's population of about 1,300 have driver's licenses.