Controversial jaywalking and parking ordinances repealed in Hustonville

HUSTONVILLE — Three months after unanimously passing parking and jaywalking ordinances into law, Hustonville city council members voted unanimously to repeal them Tuesday night.

There was no discussion of the ordinances when Mayor David Peyton brought them up for repeal; city council members voted to repeal them and moved on to the next items on the agenda.

Ordinance No. 54 had imposed a $50 fine on anyone who crossed a street "at a place other than a regular crossing or in a heedless manner, as diagonally or against a traffic light."

Ordinance No. 55 had prohibited parking for more than 30 minutes at a time on Hustonville city streets from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. Violators could have been fined $50.

"I believe the citizens of Hustonville will be glad that these ordinances have been repealed," Peyton said after the meeting.

A third ordinance that prohibited "the shielding of a person's face to where the person cannot be recognized or identified" was passed at the same time ordinances 54 and 55 were put on the books, but Peyton did not request that it be repealed.

Peyton was elected mayor of Hustonville in the November general election, after former Mayor Marc Spivey unexpectedly withdrew from the race.

Peyton campaigned in part on a platform of repealing ordinances 54 and 55 because they were unfriendly to a specific business in Hustonville, Hustonville Haunted House.

The night of the election, Spivey resigned from his position. Hustonville City Council appointed Peyton a week later, two months before his official term begins.

Peyton said signs displaying the 30-minute parking rule that were just put up along Hustonville's streets will be taken down now that the ordinance has been repealed.

"I hate it that the city wasted money on these signs, but it's the way it is," he said.