Parking Hours Near School Won’t Change

A baseball coach has struck out with the City Council.

Dave Ochoa, baseball coach at Villa Park High School, had urged the council to change the no-parking hours along part of Santiago Boulevard, near the school.

Ochoa said the current rules, which prohibit parking on Santiago until after 3 p.m., are a hardship for players and fans trying to get to after-school games near the high school.

But council members Tuesday night said the restrictions were imposed to protect schoolchildren walking or bicycling home on Santiago. Lifting the ban might endanger those children, officials said.

Councilman Bob Bell said he sympathized with the coach and ballplayers but believed that safety considerations were more important.

Councilwoman Patricia L. Bortle pointed out that players and fans can park in the high school’s parking lot. She even proposed to toughen the existing ban by extending the hours, but that plan was defeated.

One resident, Don Ebrite, told the council that the law as it stands now is not always enforced.

Mayor Barry L. Denes said he wants the city staff to monitor the area strictly and to make sure all violators of the parking ban find “a very unpleasant surprise on their windshields.”