By Michael Howell
The Hamilton City Council has adopted amended parking regulations that would lift the 90-minute parking limit in the downtown area that has been in place for a few years. Enforcement of the 90-minute parking limit has been controversial and the council was split over the issue. The vote to adopt the new ordinance lifting the parking time limits came down to a three to three tie vote with Council members Bielski, Bell and Petrusaitis voting in favor of the ordinance and Council members Pogachar, Mitchell and West voting against it. Mayor Jerry Steele broke the tie with a yes vote to approve the ordinance.
Speaking on behalf of the Downtown Hamilton Business Improvement District, Bunny Robbins cautioned that lack of customer parking can lead to the death of the downtown business district.
“For every customer who complains about getting a ticket we get 20 customers complaining about the lack of parking spaces downtown,” said Robbins. A few retail merchants in the downtown also spoke in favor of keeping the time limits.
Council member Joe Petrusaitis said that he had heard more complaints about parking tickets being issued this past winter than all the preceding years combined.
Council member Ken Bell said, “It’s time to cut loose from timed parking. It’s clearly not working and is drawing lots of complaints.” He said there is no reason for the city government to be involved in the parking problems. He said a Parking Commission composed of downtown business owners would be a better option.
Mayor Steele agreed with Bell, calling the creation of a Parking Commission the best option.
Council President Jenny West agreed with the idea of creating a Parking Commission but said she was in favor of keeping the time limits but perhaps extending the limit to two hours.
“The downtown is a place of commerce,” said West. “People need to get in, get it done and get out. It’s like table space at a restaurant.”
Petrusaitis said he was baffled by the whole discussion. He said when it was first brought up it was people howling about the tickets and enforcement driving away customers and now the same people are complaining about the lack of parking and the need for time limits. He said until there was a concrete plan for dealing with the issue of employee parking he was going to vote for lifting the time restrictions.
The Council also heard a complaint from Darrel Poole about employees at Rocky Mountain Laboratory parking in the residential area around the lab along Grove Street and 4th Street. He asked the Council to consider establishing residential only parking in the area.
The Council took action to approve a variance request on parking space requirements at the Westview school building. The Hamilton School District, which owns the property, is preparing to lease the facility to the Bitterroot Community College University of Montana. City code requires that the project include 120 parking spaces. School officials asked for a variance to allow phased in development of more parking spaces. Initially, the Council was seeking some sort of security to assure that the final development of the spaces would take place. Instead, an agreement was developed that would require the college to develop a parking plan including drainage designs prior to purchase of the land at the end of the lease.
“It’s not exactly what I expected to see,” said Council member Ken Bell, “I’d rather see a security arrangement.” But without knowing the cost of all the improvements a letter of credit was not feasible, he said.
Councilor Al Mitchell said it would be nice to have security, “but sometimes you can still do things on a handshake,” he said.
The council approved the installation of a water well in River Park by the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. The 6” to 8” well will be installed at the north end of the park along with 2 to 4 observation wells for measuring the effects of the draw down. It will all be done at the Bureau’s expense. When the testing is over the observation wells will be abandoned and the water well will be turned over to the City and could be used to water the park grounds.
The council passed on first reading an ordinance making it an offense for any person to urinate or defecate in public. The ordinance was passed unanimously without any discussion.
The council also passed unanimously on first reading a resolution adopting revised public works standards.
Following a successful six month probationary period, Police Officer Stevontae Lacefield’s position as a regular employee was confirmed.
In other business the council:
• authorized the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department to purchase a truck for the Fire Chief for $35,289;
• approved a contract with the Montana Department of Commerce, Community Development Block Grant program, to provide funding for the Wastewater Treatment Plant;
• approved a contract with LS Jensen Construction and Ready Mix in the amount of $279,404 for Fairgrounds Road Phase 2 road reconstruction;
• approved a contract with MR Asphalt in the amount of $74,662.33 for the mill and overlay project for two blocks of Pine Street and four blocks of Baker Street;
• approved a contract with Glen Smith Construction in the amount of $62,281.65 for the Parker Street Reconstruction project;
• approved a two-year contract to Gregston Construction in the amount not to exceed $50,000 per year for maintenance and repair of city curb, gutter and sidewalks;
• approved addendum No. 4 with WGM Group in the amount of $24,286 for Design Services for Fairgrounds Road, Phase 3, Shared Use Path from Old Corvallis road to Daly Avenue;
• approved a contract with Dick Anderson Construction in the amount of $1,267,045 for the Well #5 improvements project, and approval of Change Order #1 with a deduction of $154,530, bringing the total amount of the contract to $1,112,515.