Photo by Deb Gau Hamden Street in Marshall provides street access to both businesses and apartment complexes. Members of the Marshall City Council want to hear feedback from local residents about proposed parking restrictions on the narrow street.

MARSHALL — Parking on Hamden Street is making it harder to plow snow and do other cleanup work, Marshall city staff said Tuesday. The city is proposing a solution, in the form of alternate side parking, but first they want to hear from local residents.

The issue was discussed at Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting.

Hamden Street is a short street, located near the corner of Saratoga Street and West College Drive. Hamden has entrances onto both Saratoga and West College, and several businesses and apartment complexes are located along Hamden Street.

The problem on Hamden Street, Marshall Public Works Director Glenn Olson said Tuesday, comes when the city needs to sweep the street or plow snow. The narrowness of the street, combined with parking allowed on both sides of the street, makes it hard for city crews to get through, Olson said.

Olson said one possible solution would be to have alternate side parking on Hamden Street. There could be a couple ways alternating parking could be done, he said. One option would be to have alternate-day parking, with parking limited to one or the other sides of Hamden Street depending on the day. Another option would be to alternate parking every other week.

Alternate-week parking could be more convenient for local residents, Olson said. It would be easier to switch parking to the other side of the street over the weekend, when there’s no street sweeping, and no plowing except in emergencies.

Council member James Lozinski said weekly alternate side parking is common in many communities in northern Minnesota.

Council members said they wanted to get feedback from residents and business owners on Hamden Street.

“I’d like to hear which of those options they like best,” said council member Glenn Bayerkohler. However, council members had different ideas as to how to gather feedback. Council member David Sturrock suggested having a public hearing, but city staff weren’t sure they had mailing addresses to notify every tenant of the apartments along Hamden Street.

Council members voted to table the issue of Hamden Street parking until they could get feedback from local residents.

The council directed city staff to put together a handout or a uniform announcement seeking feedback, that could be posted at the apartment buildings.

• In other business at Tuesday’s council meeting, the council approved a total of four new stop signs in the “tree street” neighborhood of Marshall. Olson said the signs were being proposed after a request from a Marshall resident for more consistent traffic controls in the neighborhood. An existing yield sign at the intersection of North Whitney Street and Poplar Avenue will be replaced with a stop sign, and new stop signs will be placed at the intersections of North Hill Street and Pine Street, North Hill and Birch Avenue, and North Hill and Willow Avenue.