Clear Lake council to consider ordinance prohibiting saving parade watching spots days ahead of time

CLEAR LAKE — Clear Lake’s City Council tonight will be considering an ordinance that would ban people from marking their spot ahead of time for the community’s 4th of July parade. It’s been a sore subject for years for some property owners along Main Avenue who find chairs, tarps, and other items days or weeks ahead of time, saving an area for the annual parade.

Mayor Nelson Crabb says the ordinance will deal with the “right of way” area between the street and the back of the sidewalk in front of a residence.   “This will be a city ordinance that indicates that you or I or anyone else to be on a particular spot, whether it be the 1400 block or the 1200 block or the downtown area along Main Street for the parade, those tarps, those chairs, those blankets cannot be put out before a particular time, be that 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM in the morning. I do believe the council will approve one of those particular times.”

Crabb says if approved, those in violation of the ordinance will have things from that spot removed.  “If it’s put there at midnight before that particular event, any city official can come along and take that particular blanket, particular chair and remove it at their discretion.  The same can occur downtown. We’ve had some cases where blankets and tarps are put out even down there, sometimes days ahead, and several complaints of people tripping and falling because of those that are on even the sidewalks down there in the business district.”

While the issue was being looked at in the past, the council did not consider it last year after the pandemic cancelled 4th of July activities. Crabb says the importance of considering the ordinance this year is due to the street and sidewalk work that’s being done on Main between 14th and 20th, with the laying of new sod scheduled in that area after Memorial Day and the need of three to four weeks for the sod to get firmly established.  “That’s going to take some time to get up and going. Therefore, with all that time and money and effort of that going in at the present time, we don’t want that ruined by blankets or tarps or whatever put out there over a long period of time.”

The council meets at 6 o’clock tonight at City Hall.