The issue of whether to allow diagonal parking on both sides of a two block area in downtown Blue Earth was discussed at length at a special Faribault County Board meeting at 7:30 a.m. last Tuesday.

But, no final decision was reached on the question.

After two motions were defeated and a third was withdrawn before a vote could be taken, the County Board finally voted to have the county attorney seek an outside opinion on the effects diagonal parking can have on liability issues.

That motion passed unanimously.

The Blue Earth City Council had requested the emergency special meeting after they had been told that county engineer Mark Daly would not sign off on a Main Street project scheduled for next summer, if there was diagonal (angle) parking on both sides of the street for the two blocks involved in the project area.

The county has the final say on the designs for the work as Blue Earth’s Main Street is a county-state aid highway, and county and state funds will be paying for much of the work next summer.

Downtown business owners had lobbied the City Council for diagonal parking, and the council agreed to request the county to hold a special meeting and act on the matter.

Engineer Daly presented information to the County Board, council members and business owners present at the Tuesday meeting as to why he did not favor angle parking.

“It is a safety issue,” Daly said. “We have engineering and state standards that don’t allow angle parking on streets with higher than 3,000 vehicles per day and it is for safety purposes.”

Daly said he would not approve the diagonal parking despite the fact the county and city had petitioned for and been granted a variance for diagonal parking from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

“But the state only granted that variance if the county agreed to take on all of the liability in case of a lawsuit,” Daly said. “There is a lot of risk with approving a design that has diagonal parking on both sides of a street of this nature.”

County Board member Greg Young did not think the risk factor would be that great. He also suggested the city of Blue Earth might be interested in taking on the liability in order to get diagonal parking on both sides of the street.

After much discussion on the topic, commissioner Young made a motion that the county agree to having diagonal parking on both sides of the two blocks of Main Street in question.

Commissioner John Roper seconded the motion, but when it came to voting, only Young and Roper voted aye and two other commissioners voted no.

Then board chairman Bill Groskreutz Jr. broke the tie by voting no and the motion failed.

Young next made a motion to allow the Blue Earth City Council to decide what kind of parking to have on the street. Roper seconded this motion as well.

However, the result was the same 3-2 vote against the motion.

Young’s next motion was to allow the city to decide what type of parking to have if they agreed to take on all the responsibility and liability involved and hold the county harmless.

Before a vote could be taken, however, other commissioners argued that the County Board has no authority to tell a city council what to do.

“We would have to have an agreement in place first (concerning liability) before I would vote on such a proposal,” commissioner Tom Loveall said. “I am sure the city would want their attorney to look over any liability agreement first, also.”

County attorney Troy Timmerman recused himself from the liability issue as he owns a building and operates a business in the two blocks of the project area and that there could be a perceived conflict of interest.

However, Timmerman said he had already contacted local attorney Joe Bromeland who has a lot of expertise in liability law.

The County Board passed a motion at the end of the meeting to have Timmerman contact Bromeland and have him prepare a legal opinion on the liability responsibilities involved with the parking issues, as far as the city and county are concerned.

When asked by the board if Bromeland could have the document prepared by the time of the next County Board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 6, Timmerman said he was sure that he could.