With the start of school a week away, Winchester Police are getting ready for a busy couple weeks of traffic duties around the schools.

This year, Winchester Police Chief Kevin Palmer said officers won’t be warning parents parked in no-parking zones around schools. They will be issuing citations.

“We’ve been moving cars for 10 years and it doesn’t make a difference,” Palmer said. “We’re not going to tell people to move this year. We’ll walk up and hand you a citation.”

Each school has a defined loop or traffic plan for parents to drop off or pick up children, which have been in place for several years, Palmer said.

Around some schools, particularly Campbell Junior High School on Boone Avenue, parents tend to park along the streets in hopes of avoiding waiting in the school traffic loop, he said.

“You’re not going to save any significant amount of time,” Palmer said. “I take my kids to school and I get in line. I tell my officers ‘if you take your kids to school, you get in line.’”

Around Campbell, no parking zones have been extended along Boone Avenue, Windridge Drive, Lisle Lane and Vaught Road through the years in response to complaints from property owners about parents blocking driveways.

“There’s more (yellow curb) paint on Vaught Road than any other street in the city,” Palmer said.

The owner of Boonesboro Plaza, a shopping center across Vaught Road from Campbell, has told police he doesn’t want parents parking there to pick up students.

“This is private property,” Palmer said.

Sometimes parents will wait there to meet George Rogers Clark High School students who walked from the school to the shopping center.

“That’s dangerous,” Palmer said. “You’ve got 50 to 60 mph traffic (on Kentucky 627). I wouldn’t let my kids do it.”

Around other schools, most motorists know to avoid the areas, such as Shoppers Drive, if they aren’t going to the school, he said.

After the third week of school, traffic issues around school usually subside, he said. During those first couple weeks, officers will be at the schools in mornings and afternoons, but their priority will be getting the buses in and out.

Palmer also reminded motorists to watch for children in the early mornings while they wait for the buses. Some children have to meet their bus at 6 a.m or sooner, while it is still dark outside.