CES parents now using new parking lot to help stop backups on Main Street
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Clinton Elementrary School parents are urged to follow this traffic pattern when dropping off or picking up stu- dents at the school. They are directed to line up around a circle in the city’s new parking lot that is accessed from North Hicks Street just off North Main.
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Clinton police direct Clinton Elementary School traffic to line up inside the city’s new downtown parking lot off North Hicks Street prior to pick-up time Monday after- noon. This keeps traffic from backing up onto North Main Street.
The city of Clinton’s new downtown parking lot on North Hicks Street now is being used to divert traffic off Main Street during morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups at Clinton Elementary School.
After the school notified parents – mostly through social media – over the past weekend of the new procedure, police were on hand before school Monday morning to direct parents to circle their vehicles through the parking lot rather than to back up onto North Main Street while lined up to drop off their children at the school.
The same procedure was used again Monday afternoon as parents lined up to pick up their kids when school let out.
“It went really well,” Clinton Chief of Police Vaughn Becker said afterward. “About 30 cars were able to get in there and circle around, and there were no cars out on Main Street.
“Everybody was happy,” he said. “Everyone seemed to understand, and the gravel on the parking lot was packed down hard so nobody would get stuck.”
A post Sunday on the Clinton Elementary School Facebook page said:
“CES Parents: Tomorrow we will make a slight adjustment to our pick-up line in front of CES. To avoid lining up on Main Street, cars will wind around the perimeter of the city’s new parking lot to navigate a safer pick-up experience for our parents.”
The post included two satellite photos of the area with red arrows showing the traffic pattern cars were intended to use.
Police officers and school personnel were on hand to assist with directing traffic into the lot, and Becker said officers will continue to direct traffic for about another week to make sure everyone gets the hang of the new procedure.
Before this, traffic would begin lining up in front of the school, on North Hicks, and would back up all the way to North Main, then up North Main sometimes all the way to the Norfolk Southern railroad trestle.
That would force southbound Main Street through-traffic to move partially into the northbound lane to navigate around the school traffic.
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said in June that his plan was to have the new parking lot graveled and ready for use by the time school started for the new year, and to have Clinton Elementary School traffic diverted into the lot to end the backups on Main Street.
In early June, the city bought the 1.17-acre tract on North Main Street from the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce for $150,000, and began grading the property to create the new downtown parking lot.
While the lot now has a gravel surface, it eventually will be paved with asphalt, Houck said.
The lot is about the same size as the lower parking lot on Commerce Street, which has about 120 parking spaces, Houck said.
“We’re doing all the work in-house for now, but will put the paving out for bids,” he said in late June.
The property was bought by the Chamber of Commerce in June 2022 to use as the site for a new headquarters building. The chamber even held a “groundbreaking” on the site in November 2022.
Despite the chamber holding the groundbreaking event, no work was ever actually begun.
Then in November 2023, the chamber announced that it would be changing the site for its new headquarters to a 1.35-acre tract at the corner of North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard and West Weaver Street. That land was donated to the chamber by Joe Hollingsworth Jr., CEO of The Hollingsworth Companies.
Just across North Main from Knight’s Florist, the tract that has now become a parking lot was purchased from Brenda Lou Hemphill for $199,900 in 2022. It has road frontage on North Main and North Hicks streets, with the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks at the rear.
The new chamber headquarters site, which has an official address of 107 East Washington Ave., is between O’Reilly Auto Parts and Y-12 Federal Credit Union.
Hollingworth acquired the property on Oct. 20, 2023, from AM-PM Mart of Kentucky.
It has been vacant for some time.
Records show AM/PM Mart purchased the property in November 2012 for $220,000.