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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

What Parking Problem? Some Uptown Kellogg Business Owners Say That With Newly Built Lots, City Shouldn’t Waste Money On Parking Patrol

Bekka Rauve Staff writer

The city of Kellogg has acquired the perfect complement for its new landscaped parking lots: a three-wheeled parking enforcement vehicle.

But not everyone here likes the idea of more parking enforcement.

“I think we’ve got more important issues facing the community,” said Jim Wertjes, owner of Berg’s Jewelry, an uptown store. “The biggest is getting enough people up here that we can have a parking problem.”

The city plans to put the 1990 Cushman, just taken off-duty in Seattle, into action as soon as a part-time parking enforcement officer can be found to operate it.

“We’ve experienced parking problems in the uptown area for years,” said Kellogg Police Chief John Crawford.

“Unfortunately, with so many other calls for Police Department services, we’ve never been really consistent with parking enforcement.”

All that will change now, and some uptown business owners are applauding. Others aren’t.

Bob Todd of Todd’s Office Supply said, “It’s ridiculous. We need the police to be more visible, not somebody riding around in a little donkey cart.”

Crawford said the move is cost-effective in that the parking enforcement officer will be paid less than a police officer, and it will free up valuable police time.

The driver of the Cushman will travel all over Kellogg. Only uptown Kellogg and Bunker Avenue near the Silver Mountain gondola base have time-limited parking, but there are other violations to ticket - parking within loading zones, intersections and driveways, to name a few.

But uptown is the sensitive point.

Its two-hour parking limit is far older than its newly completed $2.24 million improvement project. Before the new parking lots were constructed, there was some excuse for business people and employees who took up customer parking in front of the shops - but no more, according to Fay Brown, owner of Alpine House Books and Gifts.

“A lot of people who own businesses on the street think they should be able to park in front of their shops and stay there all day while they’re working. I don’t think that’s fair. We need to be able to bring tourists uptown,” she said.

Most employees are using the new parking areas, a short walk from uptown shops. But Brown said consistent enforcement is still a good idea.

“Granted, there are days when you could set off a cannon up here. You wonder, where did everybody go? But there are times when it’s really difficult to find a parking place.”

Bernice Burt, who frequents the Kellogg Senior Center on McKinley Avenue, said she too thinks it’s been harder to find parking lately. But not all the seniors are happy about parking enforcement either.

“Some of the girls who go there to play cards have gotten tickets. They could park in the lot, but if you’re crippled, it makes it kind of bad,” Burt said.

Wertjes said he just wants reason and common sense to prevail. “My biggest fear is that the parking enforcement program will have to be overzealous in generating fees and fines in order to justify its existence,” he said.

“Usually this place looks like a ghost town until 3 in the afternoon. If you ask me, we ought to pay people to park up here.”