© 1999- News-Register Publishing | © The Associated Press
The News-Register and NewsRegister.com are owned and operated by News-Register Publishing Co., P.O. Box 727, McMinnville, OR 97128.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The News-Register and NewsRegister.com are owned and operated by News-Register Publishing Co., P.O. Box 727, McMinnville, OR 97128.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments
Rotwang
Maybe there's a perception that the parking garage at 5th and Evans isn't a safe place in which to be alone.
Denise
Agreed. The last time we parked there, we came back to someone urinating on our tires. And then, he yelled at me and my children various vulgarities.
Never again.
Lulu
Another $35,000 foolishly spent.
Brad M
What's that structure called again? "Fifth and Evans Urine Warehouse"? Yea, that place sucks.
Shorty
Fix the homeless problem-then the parking problem fixed
David Bates
Summary: If fewer people would stop parking on the street, there would be enough parking. Thank-you, that'll be $35,000.
tagup
Seems like the study has some value for improving the parking situation downtown. The study cost seems reasonable compared to the cost of an additional parking structure (that some people were considering). Fact based decisions are always the way to go.
I think "shorty" touched on the obvious solution...no overnight camping in the parking garage, and have employees park there.
Lulu
Then let's give both Shorty and David $45,000. Money, apparently, is not a factor in this county, particularly when dispensed to an outside company spending two--count 'em--days scrutinizing the situation in McMinnville.
tagup
I believe the 2nd paragraph said the study took 16 months....
Lulu
The actual observation consumed two days.
Lulu
Does anyone recall the selection process involved in the hiring of Martha Meeker?
tagup
It's not clear from the story, but I read that they wanted to pick two days in the summer for the analysis of peak usage....Not sure that means they only used two days for the entire study.....
Lulu
The Prothman Company of Issaquah, Washington, was hired to recruit viable candidates to replace Kent Taylor as city manager. Their search ultimately led to the hiring of Martha Meeker. The company charged $18,500 plus approximately $3,5000 for expenses.
Treehouse
Sounds like everyone can at least agree that raising and spending tax revenues to build another parking structure might be unwise at this time.
As to the use of funds to pay for a study, consider the alternatives. There are no permanent city staff hours currently assigned or available for this kind of thing. Should the council go on "gut"? Should they take a poll of staff? Let the MDA decide? Turn these decisions over to the local construction industry? Or perhaps we convert to a full-time elected city council and full time mayor each with their own paid staff?
Spending $50k to $100k per year on independent consultants is likely to be a lot less expensive on a year to year basis.
Jeb Bladine
It’s a huge underestimation to characterize the consultant’s work on this project as simply spending a couple of days counting cars.
The parking specialist’s team spent significant time with city staff on project parameters, establishing the project area, gathering factual and anecdotal information about parking needs, etc. They conducted a comprehensive survey of all parking slots in that expanded downtown area to count and categorize every public and private parking space. Their two subsequent “car counting” days were a Thursday and a Friday, each consisting of 10 hours of every-hour data collection in every downtown sub-area – license plates included – in order to analyze varying parking usage at different times of day, average times parking in all areas and categories, etc. They obviously spent a great deal of time using expertise developed in many such studies to produce a customized set of data analysis, observations and recommendations.
Those recommendations, if followed, are a road map for city officials to improve parking access short-term and plan for longer-term improvements.
It’s fair game to criticize the results or cost or process, but it would be helpful to first read the consultant’s report, database presentations and detailed recommendations.