Council OKs adding parking stalls at park

The Millwood City Council’s attention turned to parking Monday as it approved additional stalls for the city park and agreed to take a larger view of overall parking issues.

Councilman Glenn Bailey initiated the discussion at the regular council meeting by raising concerns over the parking occurring on both sides of Frederick Avenue along the park.

“I know that no emergency equipment could get through there,” Bailey said about the amount of cars parking along Frederick. “I don’t have a solution, but it’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Councilman Kevin Freeman suggested the city paint stripes on a paved lot at the east end of the park. He believes that by opening the additional off-street parking while making the north side of Frederick a no-parking zone the city may ease the congestion along the street.

“There is other parking on the west end of the park,” maintenance supervisor Cleve McCoul said. “But people just don’t want to walk.”

The council agreed with Freeman’s suggestion. According to McCoul, striping the lot will create approximately 30 additional parking spaces.

Following the discussion, Mayor Dan Mork asked the council to take a broader approach to the parking concerns by holding a special public meeting to discuss parking for the entire city.

Mork’s idea came after recently reviewing the city’s traffic ordinance, passed last July. The report summarizes parking restrictions in the city.

“We could address it all at once,” Mork said. “Talk about what areas will be no-parking and what areas will be parking and see if we can get some ideas.”

Mork noted that Millwood has heavily congested areas due to parking at sporting events, school activities and recreation. Three of the worst trouble areas are Frederick along the park, Grace Avenue from Sargent Road to Argonne Road, and Laura Road from Buckeye Avenue north to Frederick.

He plans to have the meeting later this spring, and invite the public, along with Spokane Valley Fire Department and West Valley School District.

During the legal report, City Attorney Brian Werst reported he was following up with a request made during the special meeting last week in regard to setting up a municipal court system. Werst said he was studying the costs faced by other area jurisdictions, such as Cheney, Deer Park, Airway Heights and Medical Lake.

According to Werst, the city paid $37,677 for criminal justice last year.

“It may be difficult to set up a municipal court system for that kind of money,” Werst said.