Brenda Baer: Wheels keep spinning on downtown parking garage saga

To The Daily Sun,

Surprise, surprise. Another delay on the parking garage.

How many years does it take, or when will we get a council that agrees on a

solution or takes a public stand? How many times do we have to pay for another study, or get public input?

I have a copy of a City Council meeting dated Nov. 23, 2009, where we are

discussing parking problems downtown, and this is followed by several studies and meetings regarding fate of parking garage and parking in general. The last most definitive study was done by Dubois and King in 2015. It is 12 pages long and contains a summary of their findings including data collection, site visit, analysis, recommendations, repair details and conceptual costs. This report was accepted and Dubois and King was awarded contract to do repairs and to annually inspect and repair further failings.

Almost $1 million has been paid out since 2015 to maintain the garage without making major changes. Seven years of annual studies and repairs and we are still where we were then.

This past season the council once again had studies and several meetings involved with public input as well, and in the end the council made the decision to spend $8 million for major overhaul of the garage. I wondered how long before that would blow up.

Suddenly, the mayor feels we need more information and input from public.

Strange it comes so soon with the former city manager leaving and a new

manager coming in. What was his position on the former vote and did he have

input on it? What is his position now?

The interest lately in local matters and elections has been heartwarming. Let’s

stay involved and get answers.

Brenda Baer

Laconia