Gates removed at downtown parking ramps

Parking utility could leave them off until May

There’s no need to “please take a card,” at the downtown parking ramps. As of Thursday morning, there are no gates.

The city’s parking utility board has voted to remove the gates until May 1st in order to better grapple with vandalism and other issues that have occurred since the gates were installed a couple of years ago.  

City council member Martin Gaul, who’s on the board, says it was just time to take a step back and re-evaluate. “We’ve been having so many problems with them as far as operational issues and vandalism we decided to call a time out and rethink our systems and see what we can do going forward and improve the system as it stands.”

Gaul says he would like to move away from the gate system altogether in the future, “I don’t think it’s effective in the ramps that we’ve got.”

Meanwhile, the city will contract with a private security firm to patrol the ramps 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week. 

The city faces lost revenue of more than twenty thousand dollars over the next few months without the gates.  Private leaseholders will continue to pay for their spots in the ramps.  

Parking was going to be free at the downtown parking ramps through the weekend anyway because of the thousands coming into downtown to attend the MOSES organic farming conference.