Police dept. now in charge of parking, ramp gates could stay gone

City’s newly hired parking coordinator now answers to police

The gates might come down.

Well, they’re already down, as of right now, but the parking ramps in downtown La Crosse may permanently do away with the gates that have been troublesome in the past.

There’s nothing definitive yet, but La Crosse assistant police chief Rob Abraham said he’s hoping the parking utility board will come up with some other payment method in the four downtown ramps.

“I’m not a big fan of parking gates and I would not like to see them go back up, but there has to be some sort of revenue source for those parking ramps,” Abraham said in the WIZM studio Wednesday afternoon.

The city council has just agreed to a reorganization plan that gives police authority over the operation of the parking ramps. 

That means the city’s newly hired parking utility coordinator, Jim Flottmeyer, will answer to Abraham and the police dept., though Abraham says the ultimate decision on the gates is the parking utility board’s to make. 

“I would think everybody wants parking to be free in the ramps, but on the other side, there’s a lot of maintenance costs that go into the ramps,” Abraham said. “So, there has to be some give and take there.”

Today, Abraham will meet with Flottmeyer to talk about next steps forward for the ramps. The initial plan for the city was to reinstall the gates by May 1 and begin charging for parking again. That, however, appears less likely.

“I’m not saying that there’s going to be any changes, but something’s going to have to go into place,” Abraham said. “Hopefully it won’t be gates. Something more user friendly to provide a better experience in the ramps.”

February was the last time the gates were working and the city pulled in $13,000 in revenue.

Flottmeyer has been on the job just over a month.