Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
While the owners and operators of Nalivka’s Original Pizza Kitchen are thankful about their customers’ loyalty and hard work finding ways to get to the restaurant during the construction on First Street, they are concerned about another issue now that the work on the east end of Havre is almost done: some customers may not realize that the onstreet parking in front of Nalivka’s is now gone. “People, for their own safety, need to get in the habit of parking in that 12th Avenue lot,” Gay Nalivka said Tuesday. “We’re concerned that somebody’s going to get hurt.” The project eliminated onstreet parking that used to exist on the south side of First Street from Seventh to 12th avenues, parking Nalivka’s customers used to use to pick up their orders. Nalivka said customers, especially in the evening and at night, are still parking in front of the restaurant in what is now a traffic lane. After a discussion about the loss of parking in 2003, half of Tourist Park on 12th Avenue was converted to a parking lot. Gary Berg of the Montana Department of Transportation said the construction crew is scheduled to mark the area next week. “We are going to put no parking signs up there. The contractor will be in Monday,” Berg said. That work will include the permanent marking and signing, he added. Nalivka said that the loyalty of the customers in finding the restaurant has been wonderful, but they need to remember they can no longer park in front. Some cones were put in place to show there is no parking, but those have disappeared, she said. “Right as we speak there is nothing there,” she said. She said Nalivkas contacted Mayor Bob Rice and Nelcon Inc., the company doing the construction, and they both said they would contact the state about getting some signing up. Rice said he did contact MDT once he heard from Nalivkas, since signage is the responsibility of the state, which maintains First Street. “Nalivkas are concerned someone is going to get hurt and that is a valid concern,” he said, adding that he would have put something up temporarily if the state had not been able to sign it soon.
