Steelville aldermen on June 2 discussed and tabled renovating the Spring Street bridge into a pedestrian crossing and attaching a sidewalk that would connect Hoppe Spring Park to the Steelville branch of the Crawford County Library District.

The bridge was recently closed on May 28 by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) due to structural concerns.

All traffic that approaches Spring Street near the bridge in front of Hoppe Spring Park may be accessed from Keysville Street and Fourth Street because of the closure.

Street parking for Hoppe Spring Park is located on Church Street.

Public Works Director Jason Evans introduced the idea of disallowing parking along Church Street because navigating that road is difficult.

“I don’t know if you guys have ever drove in front of Hoppe Spring Park, (but) there’s a lot of people parked in there on both sides of that road,” said Evans. “You can barely squeeze down right through the middle of it.”

Evans said he would like to keep parking options close to Church Street and suggested people park at the library lot instead.

Alderman Jason Ward agreed with Evans to close parking one side of Church Street and suggested adding signs to show visitors where to park.

“For people that don’t know the town, they would have no clue there’s parking around that way,” said Ward.

Ward said adding signs with arrows would be helpful for visitors navigating parking at the park.

“Now if we closed down the side (that’s) closest to the park, there’s not a lot of space over there and you can maybe get two cars and really squeeze them in there,” said Ward.

Police Chief Mike Sherman suggested not having vehicles park on the street at all.

Alderman Lula Patterson agreed with Sherman’s suggestion.

“If you (park) too close you’re going to go off into the creek,” said Patterson.

Patterson asked if the library would let people use their parking lot as a substitute to the closed off location.

“The library is on city property,” said Evans, adding that there’s usually one or two cars at the library’s parking lot.

“I think it’d be safer to park in the parking lot than on the side street,” said Patterson.

Patterson asked Evans if Spring Street bridge was safe to walk across.

“Yeah it’s perfectly fine,” said Evans.

Patterson said the bridge has not previously been available for pedestrians to access, as walking across it was unauthorized.

The MoDOT official that Evans spoke with said he was okay with the Spring Street bridge becoming a pedestrian bridge.

Mayor Duane DeRennaux agreed with rerouting park parking from Church Street to the library lot.

Alderman Bill Bennett said the city needed to consider adding a sidewalk that would connect the library to the park.

DeRennaux said the board would have to consider building the sidewalk in-house or bidding the proposed project out to a contractor.

“If we’re going to do concrete there it better be permanent,” said Evans.

He added that in order for the city to move forward with the sidewalk project they would have to figure out bids.

DeRennaux recommended Evans draw a diagram for a walkway to present at the next meeting because he would like to see bids promptly.

Evans said meeting with Library Director Amy England would be a good idea before moving forward with the proposed projects. Placing a sign out in the parking lot before a conversation with England might trigger an eminent domain situation.

“I don’t think she’s going to be resistant to get herself a sidewalk from (the library) to the park,” said DeRennaux.

The board tabled the discussion to the next board of aldermen meeting, which will be at 6 p.m. on June 15 at City Hall.