Dear Editor:

It is very convenient to pull into the large parking area at the side of the road at Clifford Park on Back River Road and make a phone call.

The first time I encountered a car in the parking lot after dark, its headlights beamed at me on the unlit road. At first, I took it to be traveling toward me and veered to the right to make room, quickly realizing I had veered into the parking lot and the car was not in motion. Fortunately, I was traveling on the same side of the road as the parking lot but what if our directions had been reversed? I might mistake the location of the road and find myself traveling on the wrong side of the road.

An easy solution is to paint a white line indicating the separation of the road and the parking lot but that is only a partial solution. Signs a distance further on down the road could be helpful including signs to slow down for children playing. Lights around the park are another possibility. And maybe drivers could consider the direction that their lights are shining.

Developers might have been thinking about the proximity of the children’s playground to the baseball field when they put a high mesh fence on the side of the playground that faces the field providing some protection against stray flying objects but there is only a low open fence separating the playground from the parking lot and the road. How about a long bush as a fence instead of an open rail fence?

Mackenzie Andersen

Boothbay