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The owner of Lincoln Printers, Bob
Broviak, came before the council to request a parking change.
Broviak said his customers complain that they can't find
parking. He said he has about four customers a week come in and ask,
"Well, where do you park around here?"
Numerous attempts have been made to
remedy the situation, including Bennett Funeral Home offering some
back parking spaces and police ticketing violators, and that has
helped. But, when the weather turns bad it will become a problem
again, Broviak said.
It was generally expressed by all that
it is believed to be store owners and employees who most often tie
up the parking spaces regularly all over the downtown area.
Broviak said there are eight parking
places across from Apollo Mart and his business that are for
two-hour parking. He suggested that four of those be made into
15-minute parking places.
We'd really appreciate it, he said.
City attorney Bill Bates said that the
city would need to change the ordinance to include 15-minute
parking. He recommended seeking other options first.
Aldermen Verl Prather and Busby
suggested replacing fading, aged signs and increasing police
enforcement, which Mayor Beth Davis backed up. There will be an
increase in watching all the downtown parking for a period time, and
then the situation will be reviewed.
[to top of second column in
this article]
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Parking
for disabled difficult to
enforce
Keeping reliable parking available for
disabled people keeps nagging at City Hall. Mayor Beth Davis said
that there was recently another negative media report on the city's
efforts to enforce handicapped parking.
State regulations require qualified
individuals who do not have handicapped license plates on the
vehicle they are driving to properly hang an identifying placard
where it can be seen when parking in a handicapped parking space.
"We try to help the people with
disabilities," Mayor Davis said. That's why we have the monitors and
the police checking handicapped parking spaces. If people don't put
up their placard or have their vehicle that has the handicapped
license plates, they will get a ticket. We're trying to uphold the
law, she said, so that others are not parking in their spots.
The mayor said she gets a lot of calls
wanting her to do something about it. "They get one of these parking
tickets, and they come to me and want me to do something about it,"
she said. "They wouldn't come to me if they received a speeding
ticket," she said. "It's a privilege, not a right; it's a
privilege."
We're trying
to help the disabled, she said.
[Jan
Youngquist]
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