The Jamestown City Council during its Jan. 13, 2020 meeting.
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council is again reiterating its stance on providing free parking on Third Street to accommodate customers at the Department of Motor Vehicles office.
On Monday night councilman and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Nelson (D-Ward 6) said the city had received a letter from County Clerk Larry Barmore. Barmore’s office oversees the three DMV locations in the county. In October he approached the city and requested the council consider offering free parking spaces for DMV costumers due to a lack of room in the DMV parking lot on West Third Street in the city. Last month after hearing from city attorney Peter Larson the council opted to not pursue adding the free parking spaces near the DMV.
Following that decision, Barmore again contacted the city and is now requesting officials consider placing bags over seven parking meters along in front of the building and on three meters across the street for 60 days, in order to see how the free parking concept would work.
However, despite Barmore’s concern and request, the council, along with DPW director Jeff Lehman, feel there would be several potential problems with the free on-street parking, including opening the door for other businesses to also want the same free parking for their customers. As a result the city won’t move forward with the temporary move to gauge the impact the free parking would have in that area of the downtown.
In addition to his request, Barmore had said that if the parking issue isn’t resolved, he would likely have to begin looking for a new south county location for the DMV office.
Currently, the fee for downtown parking on metered spaces is 25 cents per half-hour.
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