Friday, April 3, 2009

Next meeting

The next meeting of the committee will be held Friday, April 10, from 11a.m.-1p.m. in Wood Center Conference Room B. The first half hour of the meeting will be set aside for public testimony.

3 comments:

  1. I would like to make several comments about the parking situations that I see at the parking area for TVCC. I work in the TVCC building and have a lot of frustration about paying for a decal, making sure I am well informed about the issues with parking at UAF/TVCC and then see problems that are ongoing since we moved into that building. First, signage, which is completely lacking at TVCC. People who are not familier with the parking lot are consistently going the wrong direction in the back parking lot. Since it is supposed to be one way on each side of the back lot, get large signs up on each end that show the direction for travel, not the yellow arrows painted on the concrete that even UAF employees don't know are there and go the wrong way! Well marked parking spaces with the concrete abutment in front of each space. Every year the person that plows that lot plows up numerous concrete abutments that should be at each space and then they are laying all over the lot. They are also no longer on the ribar stakes that hold them in place and those are left for cars to hit with their tires. Another problem is the head bolt heater plug-ins. For the last couple of years the weather has gone below the +20 and colder for them to be on and it takes at least a month for someone to realize that they are not working. We ask the person in charge of getting us this kind of information and then we get mis-information. The mis-information this last fall was that the plug-ins cycle from one side of the lot to the other, which is not the case. The whole parking area around the building is on one control. Then they set up the clock or computer that is supposed to turn them on and off and after 2 weeks of complaints someone realizes the clock is not working so then they turn them on and they are always on. Even though a lot of people come into to the building at early supposedly they don't come on till 8:00, so then you have to go down and check if the plug-in has actually come on. It takes well into November to finally get the system so that it is working like it should or they have had to just turn them on 24 hours because someone forgot after the end of plugging in the previous winter and didn't fix the clock problem. I don't think enough information is in a visible area for people to see and know that if you have a decal you cannot park in the visitor parking area. That area is consistently tied up with cars that have a decal. Don't tell me that students get that information when they register, I was a student for 9 semesters and never was given one of the parking booklets when I registered!!! Not enough tickets written, I see at least a dozen vehicles every day with no decal in the parking lot. I also see people parking in the church parking lot and then plugging in, I thougt those plug-ins were if you are in the official parking area???Why isn't the parking lot at TVCC in the list online so that we know about what time plug-ins come on, how they cycle and who to call if there is a problem. The person we talk with now at TVCC never gets back to you so you never know the answer to why something is or is not working and why, or when it will be fixed!! We deserve a lot better service than what we are getting. When they come and cover up 8 plug-ins because the lot has been plowed, and that just puts more of a lack of parking space during the coldest part of the year ?? I bet that doesn't happen up on the hill! If people have to pay for their parking spot, then they need better information and better response to problems than what we get right now !!!

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  2. Is there a move to make volunteers pay for parking while doing volunteer work? If so, I protest. My work has been mainly at the gardens and do not want to deal with bureaucratic processes making a negative to continue serving there. Since I have not followed your movement and would probably bow out of my service if a charge were levied, I'd at least like to speak to this type of action causing a loss of volunteerism. I hope I have been wrongly informed and learn your actions are not intended for us volunteers at the gardens.

    Thank you,
    Olga Cook

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  3. I have concerns that the the Parking Authority is changing policy requiring the Georgeson Botanical Gardens (GBG) pay for parking passes for volunteers at the gardens. Fairbanks is the "Golden Heart City" with up to 100 volunteers donating many hours at the gardens each year during the spring and summer months.

    If the policy is changed, and the GBG is required to pay for the volunteer parking out of their budget they would not be able to fund the passes. The GBG volunteer program would suffer greatly, and as a result, the gardens. This would have a direct inpact on tourism at the gardens and the University.

    As a comparison, the Fairbanks North Star Borough has generoulsy funding the Airport Way Beautification project, in order to increase tourism and economic growth. The Parking Authority should follow this lead, and at a minimun, provide volunteers at the gardens free parking passes at no cost to the Georgeson Botanical Gardens.

    Dee King

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