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Parking dilemma

By Staff | Apr 18, 2014

Business friendly Shepherdstown? Oh! You want folks to shop and use service merchants? Wait one minute, what about a break for a loyal consumer that uses a service on Princess Street that takes over 10 minutes to walk to and from? There are only two meter spaces on that street, thereby compelling the patron to seek an alternate solution for parking. This loyal patron uses a service that takes one hour and 20 minutes. But wait, what if there is a slow down of the service or some other reason for the merchant to be delayed? Consequently the loyal patron is inhibited from leaving simply because the process isn’t finished.

It doesn’t appear that the local gendarmes are very sympathetic. Previously being a businessman I don’t believe this intolerance helps to promote more business downtown and thereby doesn’t help stem the tide of overall dissatisfaction with the current atmosphere concerning the parking in general. In addition a $40 fine for going over the limit by only a few minutes of 90 minutes on open parking is unreasonable, i.e.. compared to a meter violation of $10. Why not a 30 minute cushion? Are we all automatically to be construed as intentional abject law breakers when in fact we are just local inhabitants attempting to support local business at home?

Bill Seymour

Shepherdstown