With 700-plus students on around seven acres of land, Auburn School has some space issues. This is especially apparent when students are being dropped off and picked up and when there are special events at the school. Parents often stop in the middle of the road to let their children out and park along the side of College Street across from the school.

Auburn resident Grover Corum spoke to the Auburn City Council about safety problems around the school at last week's meeting.

Corum said the situations were brought to light when he spoke with a state engineer who said the trees along the east side of College Street needed to be cut so the new railroad signals can be seen better. A new signal with arms was recently installed at the railroad crossing near the school.

Corum said that while he talked with the state engineer the man also pointed out a “bigger problem”- the existing sidewalk is on the state right of way.

Because of the narrowness of the road in front of the school, the nearby railroad crossing and the dangerous situation of children crossing the street, Corum asked that the city ban parking on both sides of College Street in front of the school.

Another possibly dangerous situation Corum pointed out is the location of a stop sign at the intersection of College and Maple Streets on the north side of the tracks near the school.

Corum said the sign is too far back to let drivers see over the railroad and down the street. He asked that the council move it up about 10 feet to the other side of a driveway on Maple Street.

“I think both of those are good safety measures,” Corum concluded.

Mayor Dewey Roche agreed that traffic and parking around the school are a problem, as did Police Chief Scott Harmon.

“It's a bad situation,” Harmon said. “There's just not enough parking at the school, period. We try to do the best we can.”

Roche asked the council members to take a look at the road and sidewalks and observe parking and traffic around the school, then come back at next month's meeting to discuss the situation.

Auburn Principal David Ward said there was nothing he could do to keep people from parking on College Street. It is a state road and any action would have to come from the county or state. When it comes to traffic around the school, Ward said, “we've done everything we can do.”

The school began opening doors a little earlier, 7:25 a.m., to help with the traffic flow. Ward said he makes the buses stay parked until the bell rings to make the area safer for students. And though he knows many parents stop along College Street to drop off their children, the official place for car riders to be dropped off is on the Hill Street side of the school where cars can pull through the parking area and let children off at the side door.

In other news, Roche told the council about a couple who want to stay in their camper at the park from June to September and work at the park in lieu of paying the daily rental fee of $15. The couple currently do that at a campground in Texas but would like to spend the summer months here.

“I think it would be good,” Roche said. “We'd get extra work and have extra security” by having someone there all the time.

“We'd probably get our money's worth out of them,” council member Ron McGee added.

The council voted prepare a contract and let the couple stay at the park in exchange for work.

Also in the meeting, Fire Chief Jeff Gregory told the council about some items he needs to purchase for the department. Gregory said they need a projector for in-house training, a heavy-duty washing machine, some new gloves and dressy winter shirts for all the fire fighters.

There is money available for most of these purchases, but the shirts would be considered a fringe benefit since they are not necessary for the job. As a fringe benefit, they would be taxable. The council suggested that Gregory get donations given to directly to the fire department to purchase the shirts and that way the money would not have to go through the city.

The council also: