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I just read where Jaimie Irish and Casey Voss from Hair Peace went before the city council on the problem with parking in downtown Owosso. Koodos to them for confronting them!!

From what I've been hearing, pretty much all parking has a limit of 2 hours within downtown Owosso. That means limited shopping down there and I thought that Owosso was trying to promote shopping local. Kind of hard to do when you're playing Beat the Clock with the "meter maid".

Well, I don't do business in downtown Owosso anyway..........but it does sometimes take four hours for me to get a perm. Usually three........guess I know what I'm doing not going down there for a perm and a ticket!

Hair Peace has been paying for their customer's tickets. At $5 per ticket, that adds up!

Owosso better shape up and come to some realizations on a lot of things. Parking is one of them, but it's a biggie! Kind of hard for businesses to do well when parking is limited and also has limit with time. A friend of mine received a ticket for parking over 2 hours and it wasn't posted anywhere about there being the 2 hours limit. When she confronted City Hall on this she was told that it was written in the Argus about the 2 hours limit. She told them that she doesn't get the paper and was basically told "oh well".

It was also difficult for us to have a storefront downtown. We normally didn't have clients there in our shop for too long, but we had employees there all day. We couldn't park in the lot behind us or in the road in front of us for more than 2 hours at a time. And if you park anywhere in those timed places, they mark your car with chalk to keep track of how long you've been there.

It was a real pain to have a business downtown Owosso.

I've tried to avoid shopping downtown Owosso since noticing "chalk marks" on my car tires......(Meter maids usually chalk a vehicle's tires prior to issuing a ticket)...

..I may have to walk a little further while shopping at Meijers, but I can park in their lot all day for free....and I never have to clean chalk off my tires.

I had no clue Owosso has a 2 hour limit on parking. During the evening also? Guess we won't park downtown, eat dinnner, window shop, and wander over to the movie theater anymore!

AND they CAN NOT enforce the law UNLESS it is posted on signs--this from my own experience in my town--we were ticketed for parking in front of our house during certain hours in the winter--we called City Hall/police chief and raised h--e--doubletoothpicks as we had lived in the town for maybe 1 week and this happened. The ticket was excused and interestingly enough the parking ordinance signs went up the following fall.

Wonder how many DID pay when they didn't have to? IF you have a law you better advertise it better--we also heard the lame excuse that it was in the local EXPRESS a few months earlier--we informed him we lived in a different city and county a few months earlier. grrr...

In defense of and support for downtown businesses...

CORRECTed TIME

I am downtown a lot both work-related and personal business. There is a sign in almost every block stating there is a 2 hour limit... I think til CORRECTION 5 p.m., which means you could technically park at 4:01 p.m. without being in danger of getting a ticket. I'm pretty sure parking official Kincaid goes off duty at 5.....

The businesses that I frequent (Healthfirst, Spring Grove and Courtside Cafe to name a few), depend on a regular turn over of spaces to keep a flow of customers coming in, thus adding to their income. The more spaces that are blocked for any length of time limits or slows that process.

I am one of the the worst "offenders" in not walking more.... but it is COLD out! I promise to try harder, ... let's see... it's only around one block from Exchange St. lot (I think all NON-LEASED spaces are 2 hrs...) to Healthfirst OR the other two I mentioned.. about the same from Park/Exchange lot... I'm pretty sure there are NO LIMIT spaces in the lot by Armory (Farmer's Market ) .... I know Karl Manke always parks by the Woodard Paymaster bldg across from Tim Hortons and I don't think there is a limit there.... I'm pretty sure there are some long term spaces on either side of the "Dept of Public Safety" bldg....

My point is there ARE alternatives AND I want my friends' businesses to be successful. I'd be willing to bet a call to city hall would get you a list of ALL parking spaces and any time limits for them.

I believe that the lot behind city hall is unlimited. Some of my coworkers park there and haven't received any tickets yet.

I believe that employees should park away from the businesses and in parking lots. This would possibly allow for more parking on the streets. I get complaints from customers on how hard it is to find close parking. These customers aren't that young.

There is a shortage of parking in Owosso and I think that something should be done about it. The parking that is available should have the time limit upped to at least 3 hours. This would allow for people to get their hair done and actually walk to all of the stores without worrying about getting a ticket.

As always, Kevin, you are the source of good information. Thanks for the info and the idea about calling to see if there is a list with time limits.

Downtown Durand is preparing for a multi month street renovation project on Saginaw Street north from Main Street. The business owners are highly concerned about customer access and parking. In a recent brainstorming session one of the suggestions that came up was for the owners and employees to park farther away and free up the close spots for customers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shouldn't they be doing this REGARDLESS of the street projects? Especially in a small town where parking is at a premium!!!!

For several years the city has had a program in place for service based businesses. The business can buy hangers that go over your clients rear view mirror that makes his or her car exempt to the 2 hour limit. I would rather see a paper tag good for the one day that could be given to a business client that way no one has to worry about getting hangers back from the client. The hangers cost 25 bucks each, per year.

Where do you purchase these "hangers"? City Hall?

Harmonic, where in the world do you get your information? There is a parking space lease program, but it does not work as you describe. You rent a space and you get a hanger, it isn't good for just any old place. Many of the spaces in the parking lot that used to be called the Big Boy parking lot are leased like this.

I called City hall. You should call them if you want to find out more about the program I am talking about. The program I am talking about is not the same program you are talking about. Perhaps you should call the hall and check it out before projecting the idea that I do not know what I am talking about.