New parking czar managed La Crosse Center food/beverages

New position to alleviate city’s parking woes

The new boss of La Crosse’s downtown parking ramps sees his job as providing customer service. 

Jim Flottmeyer, who started as parking-utility coordinator Monday, worked for more than a decade at the La Crosse Center, specializing in food and beverages. His family also owns the Earl’s Grocery tavern.

“It really intrigued me to be able to do something and be involved in downtown,” Flottmeyer said.

He believes assisting the people who use the ramps will be an important focus of his job.

“Everybody going in and out of the ramp is a customer,” Flottmeyer said, “whether they’re a monthly patron or just somebody there for an hour or two, and I think that was the focus the mayor wanted.”

The position was newly created to manage the city’s parking dilemmas.

“The top priority is going to be getting the ramps back online,” Flottmeyer said, “whatever that decision is. Are we going to bring them all back online, are we going to do something different?”

Because of frequent equipment problems and vandalism, the ticket gates in three downtown ramps have been shut down until the May 1. Flottmeyer says it’s possible that the ticket gates could be out of service even longer.