A parking meter on Court Street on Thursday, April 9. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
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Normally Deborah Romano would be visiting dangerous and derelict buildings in her job as a Salem code enforcement officer.
She would get dispatched to houses when trash was accumulating or neighbors were parking their car in the yard.
With Salem confined to home or otherwise restrained from gathering, Romano’s job has shifted to help see state orders on social distancing are observed. Hers is one of a number of city jobs that have shifted focus or seen changes in duties or workload.
Now, she’s educating visitors to Cascades Gateway Park about social distancing and letting homeless campers know where they can get potable water and throw away their trash.
On March 17, the Salem City Council voted to re-open camping in both Wallace Marine Park and Cascades Gateway with the provision that campsites be spaced 50 feet apart and contain 10 or less people.
In five-hour shifts, Romano drives her work truck to the park and walks with a partner, handing out garbage bags when people ask and educating them about new guidelines meant to stem the spread of COVID-19.
She’s been coming to the park for three weeks and always takes a different route, a holdover from her time as a police officer.
Romano tells homeless campers in about 40 sites to keep tents spaced apart and not to light any fires.
She also has her eye on people walking through the park, making sure they’re not clustering or smoking.
“Honestly everybody’s been pretty courteous and respectful,” Romano said.
But she added she’s had the biggest issue with people letting their dogs off leash now that the dog park is closed.
“The dogs off leash is a constant,” she said.
Across town, downtown parking enforcement officers are on patrol as usual, but they’re no longer enforcing the three-hour parking spaces and two of the city’s parking garages are closed.
Traffic has slowed significantly with the closure of many businesses, according to traffic counts conducted by the city.
Southeast Liberty Street saw nearly half the number of cars on March 31 as it did on Sept. 24. Vehicle traffic dropped from 22,438 to 12,174.
One block over, Southeast High Street saw 1,848 cars on March 31, compared to 4,732 on Sept. 24.
With the closure of the Chemeketa and Marion Parkades last week, downtown residents have started parking on the street in the three-hour spots.
On Wednesday, one parking enforcement officer was responsible for citywide parking enforcement, another was responsible for monitoring the 30-minute parking spaces and a third watched the newly created 15-minute spaces, created to allow for meal pickup at the restaurants still operating.
Lance Jones, one of the enforcement officers, is normally on a bike enforcing parking by the Capitol Mall but he’s currently out because of an injury.
Jones said parking officers are still fielding calls about drivers parking over the sidewalk – a standard issue they would normally deal with.
“Parking is always going to be parking,” Jones said.
Have a tip? Contact reporter Saphara Harrell at 503-549-6250, [email protected] or @daisysaphara.
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