CALDWELL, Idaho — It's been nearly two months since the City of Caldwell's parking meters went live. Some downtown businesses still claim funds are decreasing due to meters.
"I can't say that I've seen any positive changes," Karmella Martinez, the bookkeeper at Rostock Furniture, told KTVB Tuesday. "Things have been pretty much the same. The streets seem empty. The store is slow."
Ernie Seaton, owner of Abracadabra Antiques, claims the store's sales are down at least 40%.
The alleged effects don't sit well with councilmember Diana Register, who voted against the parking meters last December.
"All these things may work in a bigger city, but it doesn't work for Caldwell," she told KTVB in a phone call on Tuesday. "And I think that's where this is getting lost."
She said she voted no, not because she didn't think there needed to be a parking solution downtown, but because she hoped the city could take more time to find the right solution.
"The meters were extremely rushed. The mayor did not communicate with counsel about what was going on or what he was going to do," Register said. "I feel like we went from step one to step ten, putting in the meters."
The city could have given the meters "a test period" or had further discussions about when meters would run, she said.
"The community said in many, many, many different times at meetings on social media, all over the place, that they would stop coming, if they put the meters in, and it was almost like the city called their bluff, and they're not coming anymore," Register said.
A petition started by downtown business owners now has more than 700 signatures demanding the city remove the meters.
"They're forcing people to rush in and rush out," Martinez said. "Which is not something that we want for Caldwell."
KTVB watched as one of Rostock Furniture's customers tried to pay to park but got locked out six times. The machine would take their quarters, but the screen would then freeze.
When asked if they considered using the parking app, to pay with a credit card, they said they weren't comfortable providing their credit card information.
"He said those parking meters are a nightmare," Martinez said about the customer who tried to pay to park.
Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner has heard the complaints and plans to answer them with some proposed changes he'll announce at Tuesday's council meeting. The proposal is to make the first 30 minutes free instead of the current 15 minutes, as well as free parking on Saturday and Sunday instead of just Sunday.
But business owners feel that's not enough.
"I do think that it is a band-aid; I don't think that offering Saturdays free and offering an additional 15 minutes is going to do really much of anything, especially for our customers; we need a lot more time for people to come in and shop," Martinez said.
She suggested two free hours of parking, while Seaton would be satisfied with one.
"'I'd love to see the hour, the first hour free every day," he said. "And Saturdays free. Because I know that there has to be a compromise, everybody would like to see these gone. But I'm certain there has to be a compromise. And that's what I'm trying to work for. Before the meters came up, the businesses were getting more people. And now, as you can see, the streets empty."
Councilmember Register also planned to propose changes at Tuesday night's meeting, but she wasn't willing to share what those changes were at the time.
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