Dear Neighbors:

First of all, it is not too late for you or for me to keep the ideas about parking flowing in. That is what they say at their meetings every week but it doesn’t always get out to the public. So opine on.

I want the town to start with incremental changes rather than going whole hog into all the possible changes at once. I personally would want to start with the writing of an ordinance to limit parking to three or four hours at a time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Write it, do it. Watch and see the effect. Let the people who have a hardship (lack of money, a job on First Street, a home on First Street) park free at the town’s south lot. Give all these aforementioned people parking stickers for parking free at the south lot.

Parking overnight would be allowed on the street. And parking the first three or four hours in the morning would be allowed. After that – they would have to move.

This social experiment will give you the data you need to learn if we have a parking problem or an ordinance parking. I think we have enough parking spots if you include the south lot.

Once you know how many vehicles remain, you could move on to the emergency vehicles problem.

Cheery,

Linda Talman

La Conner