CALDWELL, ID — Caldwell held their second city council meeting on Tuesday where the talks continued about the proposal of parking meters being installed in downtown Caldwell.
- Caldwell held their second City Council meeting of November on Tuesday
- Parking is currently free in the downtown district
- It is proposed to install parking meters around downtown Caldwell
- Parking would be $1 an hour in the specific zone
- The council has approved the location and times of enforcement
- Public comments and fee schedule have been delayed until December 5th
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
I'm your neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston. Parking meters being proposed in downtown Caldwell are continuing to receive feedback from Caldwell community members. I went to the city council meeting to see how the community was feeling about the possibility of paid parking.
Money may not grow on trees. However, in Caldwell, it may grow on public parking meters. Although it is not officially settled yet, many community members gave feedback at the most recent city council meeting.
One shop manager said, "They can park over here in the free section, in the blue section. But, one, there are no lights over there. My 16-year-old cashier is going to park over there and walk in the wintertime at eight o'clock at night. I don't think that is very safe, and I don't think she is going to want to do that.
"I don't get it, is there no overnight parking, or no overnight fees? I would hope there is overnight parking because there are people who live downtown and probably count on being able to park," said another.
Another man explained, "Now we are going to take away parking from the people of Caldwell, who have been here, participated, paid the taxes, paid the BID, paying for all the improvements. Now we are going to penalize them"
Caldwell has had many improvements downtown in the last 10 years, and the money made in these meters will go right back into making more improvements to the city.
The council voted to delay any further public comments as well as the fee schedule until December 5th.
We will continue to follow this story as it gets closer to the decision time for these parking meters. For more information on the proposal, you can check out our story on Idaho news six dot com. reporting in Caldwell I'm your neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston, Idaho News 6.