Author Topic: Parking Office Issues  (Read 3667 times)

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Offline martinr

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Parking Office Issues
« on: October 13, 2008, 01:55:09 PM »
Parking Office Issues
by martinr

A few days ago I came across an e-mail posted at work about a series of “town hall” meetings to share information about the recommendations of a so-called “Parking Task-Force” on campus. This group of people had apparently been commissioned by Vice President Robert Gallager to undergo the daunting task of recommending several fixes to the bane of every faculty, staff, student and visitor’s existence on campus: the Parking Office. These recommendations include the following two items that caught my eye:

Raising the cost of a Faculty/Staff permit to $225 per year (THREE TIMES the cost of this year’s price).

Raising the cost of a Student permit to $155 per year (that’s more than DOUBLE the cost of this year’s price).

In 2005, permits cost students $40. An overpriced parking garage was still a pipe dream and promises were made to pave several parking lots (including the one behind Archives). Since then, the garage that no one wanted has become a reality and the lots promised to have been paved are still covered in gravel.



Full article . . .
« Last Edit: August 22, 2009, 12:59:51 PM by Sal Atticum »

Offline Sal Atticum

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Re: Parking Office Issues
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2008, 11:42:23 AM »
http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=89999&section=homepage

Quote
Campus parking proposal worries workers: Cost of some UND permits would triple
Archie Ingersoll Grand Forks Herald
Published Saturday, October 18, 2008
UND officials say prices for campus parking permits have to be increased to cover operating and infrastructure costs. Though the exact hike hasnt been finalized, one proposal suggests more than tripling the current employee fee and more than doubling the student fee.

Those prospects have left the UND community buzzing with consternation.

A lot of people just dont think its justified, said Dale Spicer, who works in the facilities department. Its just causing a lot of stress.

Right now, staff and faculty pay $66 per year to park in campus lots, but under the proposal being discussed, the price would go to $225 in December. And student rates would go from $70 to $155 in 2009, according to a presentation the universitys parking task force has been giving employees.

The task force met with Spicer and his co-workers Monday. The sometimes-heated meeting was one of several that have been held across campus to explain the increase and gather feedback.

The task forces final meeting is set for noon on Monday, Oct. 20, in the Memorial Unions Lecture Bowl.

Spicer said he sees the proposed fee increase as a bailout for the $16.5 million parking ramp located at University Avenue and Columbia Road.

Parking services manager Timothy Lee said theres no question the schools parking system, which has to support itself financially, must pay for the five-level ramp.

Lee said the ramps initial business plan has needed tweaking. The ramp at first was to be half pay-as-you-go and the other half for drivers with ramp passes. But when it opened last year, pass sales were lower than expected, and the pay-as-you-go system was instituted later than scheduled, he said.

Despite the setbacks, Lee said, the ramp is right now operating on its sales from last year. Theres been an upswing in pass sales this fall, with students snapping up about 200 of the 300 spaces reserved for pass-holders, Lee said.

But aside from paying off the 750-space ramp, he said, theres also a cost of maintaining and repairing the schools 11,000 other spaces.

Lee said with the costs of oil and cement rising, the current fee schedule wont cover expenses in the long-term.

However, Jeannie Lewis, an administrative assistant in the biology department, said shes convinced the new ramp has a lot to do with the fee increase a point she pressed the task force on at a recent meeting.

I said, OK, in the grand scheme of things, if we didnt have that parking ramp, how much would our fees be going up? she asked.

The reluctant answer she received was that the $225 price tag would probably be $125 an amount she said shed be willing to pay.

We were always under the impression that that parking ramp was supposed to be self-supporting, she said. So basically, to me, theyre charging every faculty and staff member an extra 100 bucks to pay for that parking ramp.

Lewis, who lives near Fisher, N.D., and has to drive to work, said she and her co-workers have already started talking about other ways to commute and other places to park.

Dr. Doug Munski, a geography professor leading the parking task force, told Spicer and his co-workers that the university finds itself in an awkward situation.

There is no pot of gold, (the parking system) is to be self-supporting, and you can thank our state Legislature for that, Munski said. Were stuck.

Yet Spicer said he wonders if there are alternatives to a fee hike, especially at a time when many are feeling a financial squeeze.

We felt like we were blindsided by this, he said. We usually get a slight increase every year, but nothing like this.

Lee cautions that the proposal is just that. He said it must be finalized by the task force and then approved by the universitys parking committee, vice president for finance and operations Robert Gallagher and ultimately, president Robert Kelley.

Things can happen at any level, he said.

Reach Ingersoll at (701) 780-1269; (800) 477-6572, ext. 269; or send e-mail to [email protected].

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx7kZGcLleE[/youtube]
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Meest

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Re: Parking Office Issues
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2008, 08:07:50 PM »
How is it that the school can have parking meter's but the state deems them illegal?? is it just public roads? but isn't UND a public university? I guess I've never understood how they can have meters on UND but the city or anyone in the stage can't have them as per state law....

Offline Sal Atticum

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Re: Parking Office Issues
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2009, 01:00:06 PM »
This topic is locked, but you can still comment at http://www.campusdakota.com/node/10
JUST EXTRA POLISH. I DO SOME WORK WITH EXCELL SO I KEEP THE CAPS LOCK ON :-P

 

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