Drivers have backed into the retaining wall in the public parking lot adjacent to Hudson Street, causing damage that the Village of Oxford’s insurance company had to pay for on multiple occasions. Now, the village council is considering how to protect the wall, including having police issue tickets and re-striping the lot. Photo by Jim Newell

By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
OXFORD – The Oxford Village Council is looking into potential adjustments to the downtown’s southwest parking lot adjacent to Hudson Street after ongoing damage to the brick wall caused by vehicles.
During its meeting on Dec. 12, the council discussed the damage that has, on a number of occasions, been caused by trucks and bigger cars backing into spots located in front of the wall and making contact with it.
“People prefer to back in there for a lot of reasons. It’s trucks like that that back up and hit it and either knock into it or tilt it over and make it unsafe,” said village Manager Joe Madore.
It’s a precarious issue as the parking lot as a whole is arranged in a way that makes it tight for many cars, especially larger vehicles. The spaces in question are difficult to navigate in and out of, causing a number of drivers to opt into backing into the spaces rather than pull in head first.
Vehicles with hitches backing directly into the brick wall have caused damage that the village has been paying for if they cannot identify who caused the damage.
Madore brought the issue up at the council meeting in November but the council decided to have further discussion at its December meeting.
Since November, the village has added three signs to the area informing drivers to only pull into the spaces head first. Additionally, village police have been issuing tickets/warnings for those who do back into the spaces.

However, other ideas have been discussed about how to protect the wall which, by village ordinance, must stay in place.
“The goal, I think at this point, is, right now in the short term, we were going to not allow people to back in. I think if we were to put a guardrail piece along there, that would displace any pressure if anybody backed into the wall,” Madore said. “If we get a guardrail piece and mount it on the wall, if somebody were to hit it, it’s not all that pressure hitting one point. It’s going to disperse that pressure and perhaps it wouldn’t be as damaging to the wall, and I’m not as concerned about the wall being knocked and made unstable or damaged.”
Other suggestions include potentially putting in angled parking which would likely result in the loss of one space, Madore said. Additionally, council discussed relining the entire lot to make it easier to navigate.
“That parking lot needs to be totally redone,” said council President Kelsey Cooke. “It’s a free-for-all in trying to figure out where the lines are, pulling forward and you can’t get out.”
Cars hitting the wall is not an isolated incident and has occurred before. In the past, the village has been on the hook with its insurance company to have the wall repaired. The difference is that this time village officials know who had made contact with the wall.
“The one that we had to replace on the south side of the dumpster going down. It was $10,000 worth of damage and we didn’t know who did it. This time, we know who did it because it was seen. We’re able to subjugate against their insurance company. The other one, our insurance company is taking a hit and we’ve had a few hits in the last year or two. Our insurance company is wondering when we’re going to do something to prevent this from continuing,” Madore said.
In the short term, council directed Madore to continue to keep the signs in place directing drivers to not back into the spots, to get the information out on social media and to have police issue warnings to those who do back in. However, if backing in continues to be a problem, police will likely start issuing tickets.
“I would say, let’s leave it as it is for now, see if people stop backing in. And if people aren’t going to stop backing in then you start writing tickets,” said Councilmember Maureen Helmuth.
Council also expressed interest in receiving additional information on how much it would cost to put in a guardrail and what it would take to re-stripe the lot.