Palmerton Area School District officials said Tuesday night that parking along Fireline Road will no longer be permitted for events after Lower Towamensing Township leaders reminded them that the restriction was part of a variance granted during a 2017 construction project.

District officials explained that the township directed the school to enforce overflow parking rules and require vehicles to use designated grass lots inside the fence along Fireline rather than the space next to the road.

“That was a condition of the variance that they gave us when we did the last construction projects,” Assistant Superintendent for Academic Programs and Technology Dr. Dan Heaney said. “It didn’t come to light until our meeting with the township last week. They said that would be an issue moving forward for any other construction projects, so we have to follow through on it.”

Heaney expressed concern about liability if the parking restriction was not enforced.

“If it’s on record that we knew about it and we didn’t enforce it, then if someone gets hit by a car getting out at a football game, we’re negligent,” he said.

Board President Earl Paules asked why the restriction had not been enforced previously if it was part of a 2017 variance.

“The failure to enforce the stipulations that had been put on the district in 2017 is not the fault of Dr. Heaney or anyone sitting here,” Superintendent Angela Friebolin said. “You can’t correct what you don’t know about.”

Friebolin said the issue became urgent once the township placed the district on notice.

“Once the district is put on notice, if we fail to act, we are complicit in any accident should someone get hurt,” she said.

Cones, provided to the district by Aquashicola Fire Company, were placed all along the area in question for Friday night’s varsity football game against Lehighton.

Friebolin added that the timing raised concern because the game was youth night and an Aevidum event during which everyone was encouraged to wear black.

“We mobilized very quickly, and we are not going to park there anymore,” Friebolin said. “If we want to move forward with the projects we need to do for our kids, then that’s a stipulation. Had we failed to act, and God forbid, one of our kids or a parent had been hurt, we were on notice.”

The stipulation dates back to 2017, when the district changed the stadium playing surface from natural grass to turf. Current proposed projects, for which the district was before the township planning commission last week, include a one-story, 11,000-square-foot district administration office building to be located in the lawn area off the high school gymnasium and a two-story addition to the high school that will house administrative offices and five new teaching spaces.

Residents questioned how the district would enforce the parking restriction.

Friebolin said the district reserves the right to tow.

“Those signs have been there,” she said. “There is more than sufficient overflow parking. One of the stipulations is that we should better guide people into those areas. We started that on Friday.”

Parking restrictions, she added, apply to non-district events held on school property, such as booster club activities.

“For decades people have assumed they could park there, and it’s going to take some time to get used to it,” Friebolin said.