The issue has been discussed in the past by City Council members, with those discussions continuing during this week’s City Council Public Works Committee meeting. Councilman Randy Daversa, R-At Large and chair of the Public Works Committee, said the crosswalk is something city officials are hoping to be able to do as there have been a lot of concerns from residents.

“There has been a lot of concerns from people for the children that are crossing from the across the street apartment complex at Jefferson School,” Daversa said.

Daversa said he talked with Mark Roetzer, city public works director, about a potential cost for putting in a crosswalk there. The plan is to lay a little cement pad there and Daversa said the curb will also need to be knocked out. The overall price of doing that they came up with was $13,475.

“That does not include the flashing lights, which we can probably get away with not having them, that’s another $1,000 in costs,” Daversa said. “We are going to possibly see what the school has to say about whether they may contribute or not, and they very well may to this cause.”

Traffic passes in front of Pace’s Pizzeria on Third Street. City Council members have reached a tentative agreement with Pace’s Pizza to make a space for loading and unloading in front of their business. P-J file photo

Also in his public works committee report to the council, Daversa briefly discussed a tentative agreement with Pace’s Pizza to make a space for loading and unloading in front of their business, along with the work on Foote Avenue, which he said is near completion.

Joe Town, owner of Pace’s Pizzeria on Third Street, spoke during a May 2024 City Council work session. He noted that many other restaurants downtown are located in areas that don’t have parking meters. He would like the same sort of accommodation. Parking on the back side of the Northwest Arena, he said, isn’t in high demand much of the time his business is open until after meter monitoring ends. Town asked that a loading zone designation be considered for workers in his restaurant who are trying to unload supplies in the morning so they don’t have to worry about parking meters or carrying bags and boxes across Third Street from a parking lot across the street to the restaurant.

“The first item is as I drive around Jamestown I notice that all my friends who own restaurants, and I’m happy this is the case, I don’t want that to change, they don’t have meters in front of their restaurants – Forte, Lisciandro’s, The Pub, Sauce, etc. don’t have meters in front of their restaurant,” Town said when he spoke to the council in 2024. “Really the only quarters the gentleman who collects from the meters gets are from me every morning when I’m making my ingredients and Holly, who is my manager. Time gets away from us sometimes and the tickets do pile up.”