The Eagle River Parking Committee held its first meeting prior to Memorial Day with members repeating the oft-mentioned lack of adequate parking in the downtown area now that meters have been replaced with three hour parking signs.
New police chief Chris Dobbs said her main issue is how to enforce the three hour parking rule.
“There are new legal cases that indicate we can't mark tires with chalk as we did in the past and how far a vehicle has to move to start another three hour period is simply hard to enforce,” Chief Dobbs said,
Committee chair Jerry Burkett repeated what he says every year that “all business owners need to be reminded to have themselves and their employees park on the side streets.”
Although committee member Sally Kemp felt there could be a couple of more spaces on Wall Street before certain intersections, Burkett indicated “we want parking but we want safety first.”
Public works director Mike Adamovich indicated new stripping will be done as soon as nighttime temperature are high enough to do it. Public crosswalk signs are in place and a template saying “No Wheels” will be placed on sidewalks.
Kemp asked about more police downtown on foot and Dobbs indicated they were short an officer so “I'll probably be the one walking downtown especially during the July 4th events.”
Unless some emergency parking issue comes up, the committee will meet in September to evaluate how the summer parking went.
