Parking Donations Boost Community Policing In/Around: Northtown Mall
On NorthTown Mall’s busiest day of the year, senior citizens in search of a parking space got a break, courtesy of a north Spokane community policing program.
Seventy prime parking spaces on the first floor of the garage between Mervyn’s and J.C. Penney were handed over to Neva-Wood COPS as a fund-raiser for the group.
For 20 of the busiest shopping days, the spaces are being reserved for seniors and other shoppers who may otherwise not be able to walk to far-off parking places and might be deterred from going to NorthTown at all.
On the day after Thanksgiving, a steady stream of cars rolled into the garage.
Families towing grandma and kids and in mother/daughter combos were the most evident.
Marie Shaffer, 57, a North Side resident, came and parked with her mother, Blanche Stevens, 74, of Eugene, Ore. Shaffer was not accustomed to paying for parking at the mall but considered the payment to the substation a good donation.
In exchange for her $3, she was handed information about community policing and a candy cane.
“I believe in the COPS shop,” she said. “For this I don’t mind paying. They have to raise money somehow.”
Her mother, who used a cane to help her walk, said the service made it much easier for her to enjoy the mall.
“This really helps, especially during the Christmas season,” she said.
Neva-Wood COPS President Deborah Wittwer has lined up 75 volunteers to staff the parking operation Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week until Christmas as well as the entire week before the holiday.
Wittwer and Kathy Rock, 42, were the first volunteers Friday and started at 10 a.m. with a full thermos of coffee, lawn chairs and blankets.
Mall spokeswoman Michelle Driano said the cooperation with Neva-Wood COPS helps the mall both support community policing and provide a service to shoppers.
“They offered it to the cop shop,” said Rock. “We can make a lot of money.”
“Of course, we always like to do things that are brand new and have never been done before,” said Wittwer.
The funds will be used to help complete a community policing substation at Wellesley and Addison and for volunteer activities, such as paying for gasoline so members of the Neighborhood Observation Patrol, who drive their own vehicles, can patrol the neighborhood on Fridays and Saturdays.
The pace of traffic increased after 11 a.m. Friday, when other lots began to reach capacity. The Neva-Wood volunteers were not only hustling but laughing as well.
“We’re counting seniors as 50 and over,” said Rock.
“Gee,” said a woman pulling her car into a space. “Thanks a lot. I guess I qualify.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo