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SCSU faces parking issues
 Media Credit: scott theisen Steve Ludwig, Vice President of Academic Affairs, discusses the issue of building a parking ramp at a meeting about raising St. Cloud city parking fines Thursday. Students voiced concerns about parking problems to St. Cloud and SCSU officials during the open meeting in Atwood Glacier Room.
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The decision is final: city parking tickets throughout all of St. Cloud will increase to $20 starting July 1.
The $15 fine increase is an effort to gain parking compliance among St. Cloud residents and especially college students.
"The current fine has been considered inadequate to have people park correctly," said Steve Gaetz, St. Cloud Director of Public Services. "For some people it is so minor that they really don't pay attention."
Although the new higher fine will raise city funds, revenue was not the main focal point in the decision.
"We are not trying to raise revenue, it is to gain compliance," he said. "We would like people to park correctly overnight. We get complaints from people living in the area."
City Clerk Gregg Engdahl also commented that the current $5 fine is hardly profitable.
"For every $5 citation that we write we lose money," Engdahl said. "I believe $20 is an adequate cost for enforcing the zones."
Community activist and Southside resident Jerry Middelstadt played a significant role in the decision to up the fines. Middelstadt owns a bed and breakfast business on Sixth Avenue South. He commented on the fact that improper student parking results in an inadequate allotment of spots for his customers to park.
"People seem to know the parking times," he said. "Not everybody is going to be able to drive a car."
"One of the goals is to discourage cars in the community," said Jan Peterson, city attorney. "The percentage of cars in the community keeps increasing."
Free bus system
To promote the lessened use of cars around campus, the school is starting to advocate city bus use. Beginning fall 2003, all student bus fares in St. Cloud will be free.
"We've made an agreement for anyone with a current student ID to ride the bus for free," said SCSU Administrative Affairs Vice President Steve Ludwig.
As for other parking solutions, Ludwig proposed the additional installation of parking spots over the summer.
"We're adding additional parking this summer," he said. "(Students) really want the parking close to where they want to be."
New parking ramp
As a result of congested student parking and increased city parking fines, SCSU has undergone plans to submit a parking ramp proposal to MnSCU.
The ramp would have the capacity to hold around 500 cars and cost about $15,000 per parking stall to construct.
The location of the ramp is still undetermined, but according to a survey taken last November, the two most popular sites for the ramp are across from Hill-Case hall or near the old SCSU bookstore.
"We will do some analysis of what is the best site," Ludwig said.
Chances for ramp approval are relatively high, he added. SCSU will likely know sometime around mid summer.
"I think we are pretty likely to get the ramp," he said. "We've put together a plan to show how we can pay for it. We'll know better after we see all the requests."
"If MnSCU proceeds, I hope we'll have authorization by July," he said. "It would be in service for the fall of 2005."
Student government Chair of Urban Affairs David Plourde has been dealing with a parking council to try to determine a solution for parking needs.
"With the parking fines going up, it has forced the city and campus to look at the issue," Plourde said.
Originally, student government was directly against the parking fine increase. Yet, after several meetings, their view has slightly shifted.
"Now we are making sure that we focus on that if (the fines) are going to deter people from where they are going to park, where are they going to go?" he said.
"There is no answer right now," Plourde added. "Unfortunately, you can't just create a magical solution to parking spots."
Although city parking fines will increase to $20, Public Safety currently has no plans to increase the fines for tickets given on campus.
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