Downtown parking controversy reaches Ritzville City Council

The downtown parking controversy that has been the talk of the town as of late reached the Ritzville City Council meeting on April 2.

Most of the discussion about downtown parking has been centered around the disagreement over whether business owners and their employees should refrain from parking in front of their own businesses, keeping those parking spots available for potential customers instead.

Ritzville Police Chief Dave McCormick brought up the parking controversy while delivering his regular report, saying he's aware of the complaints and compiled some of his own data about what he's been seeing as of late.

What followed was a conversation among councilmembers and city officials as they pondered if-and how-they could help resolve the hot-button issue.

The Journal has transcribed that discussion, which six of the seven councilmembers, the mayor and Chief McCormick participated in. The following discussion has been edited lightly for clarity.

Police Chief Dave McCormick: "I talked to the girls from the Chamber and gave them a suggestion to deal with it. And when I left my training this afternoon I drove up Washington, and from Broadway to Railroad in a two-block stretch of Main Street, with Adams and Division, I counted 11 vehicles that I know are owned by either employees of businesses, or owners [of the businesses]. In four blocks. And I go and check and they're always there. On Adams, you've got four [vehicles] there all the time, and up to five sometimes, of people that live on that block that park down there. So I just thought I'd report those numbers to you. I don't have anything else unless anybody had any questions?

Councilmember Dede Rawlings: "Well I would think if an owner of the business, they would want to keep those parking spaces open for paying customers. I don't get it."

Councilmember Mark Weigand: "Why don't you go talk to them?"

Rawlings: "Well, you know, when I worked some place we weren't allowed to park where customers parked, because they would lose business that way."

Councilmember Dennis Chamberlain: "This has been an issue for decades. It's not something this council's going to be able to solve, and it's not something Dave [McCormick] is going to be able to solve. It's an ongoing problem and it is what it is. And here's something that people sometimes forget: if you go to a Walmart or a Costco or anything like that, and you catch them on a busy day and you have to park at the end of the parking lot, you're walking the same distance as Broadway to Main Street. And farther. And nobody thinks anything of it. But in Ritzville, they do. So you know, let's keep it in perspective with where things are at here."

Mayor Gary Cook: "A few years ago, Dede, one of the issues that came up was that we had owners of businesses that were just about to go to fisticuffs because they weren't parking in front of their own place, they were parking across the street in front of another business. And then that business would get mad and they'd come and park in front of theirs, and these people were arguing all the time. But neither one would move off of Main Street, they'd just go in front of the other business."

Chamberlain: "We have our way, and if our downtown becomes revitalized, this issue is going to be here all the time and every day. People are going to be mad about it, it's going to happen, it's just the way it is and that's probably a good thing. Not the people getting mad, but that we've got parking problems. A parking problem means that there are people there."

McCormick: "If I had a business downtown, my employees would not be parking on Main Street. And as owners, we wouldn't either. The last time I checked there were 14 [owner or employee-owned vehicles] in the same area, but it was a little different time of the day. Just to throw it out there, because it makes me mad when I want to go downtown and go into a business and I have to walk two blocks, but the employees and the owners are parking in front of the business I want to go to."

Cook: "You know Dave, maybe what it takes is an awareness for the owners. Maybe as a customer-I know we tend to not do this-maybe we need to walk in and talk to the owner and say, 'I came here to shop. But you know what? I just had to walk three blocks, so I'm going to Home Depot,' so they're aware that I'm not going to come in here if I have to [walk so far]. But I don't know that that would matter."

McCormick: "I really think that some of the responsibility lies with the Chamber."

Rawlings: "The Chamber? How is the Chamber responsible?"

Councilmember Debbie Chapman: "Because the Chamber has the power to put pressure on businesses."

McCormick: "Yeah, I think most of the businesses belong to the Chamber. Or well, they should. The Chamber is there to promote business in the community. The Chamber should be putting the pressure on the businesses to make places for customers to park. To promote the business."

Chamberlain: "My advice to the Chamber was not to touch this with a 10-foot pole. [Laughing from other councilmembers] That was my advice. I just-you know, it is what it is, guys. It's going to be a problem, it's always a problem and-"

Rawlings: "Don't we have a little section of land, or a lot or something where we could put as a parking area?

Councilmember Scott Yaeger: "They won't park there anyways, Dede."

Councilmember Michelle Plumb: "We've got Broadway right in front of the Legion."

Yaeger: "This has been going on for as long as I've been on the council, 13 years."

Chapman: "The only thing that's going to resolve it is when downtown is revitalized and parking is a premium. And then the customers will make it happen."

Rawlings: "Well, [it needs to] hurry up and revitalize."

Yaeger: "It worked for a couple months, I think, when the Chamber actually did go around. And I don't know if we sent letters out asking businesses to be respectful and blah blah blah. It worked for a little bit."