An engineer inspected the Derby parking garage Friday morning and is hurrying to get a report to Derby City Hall as soon as possible, Mayor Anita Dugatto said.
The plan is to open the garage as soon as possible, assuming the engineer gives the structure a clean bill of health.
Over at the parking garage, part-time workers waved off motorists trying to pull into the garage Friday morning. Click play to watch video shot at about 8:40 a.m. Friday.
Those motorists included employees from local businesses and the nearby state court house, entities that pay monthly fees to use the garage. The workers told motorists the garage was closed by the Board of Aldermen and to call the mayor’s office for more information.
Meanwhile, Alderman David Lenart spent Friday morning walking up and down Elizabeth Street explaining to businesses owners why he and four fellow Aldermen voted to close the 300-space parking garage during an Aldermen meeting Thursday. He handed out a letter, a copy of which can be read here.
The Aldermen’s move came after an engineer hired by the Derby Parking Authority appeared at an Aldermen meeting and, while being questioned by Lenart, said that portions of the structure are in such bad shape they should probably be off limits to the public.
The engineer’s exact statement to the Board of Aldermen Thursday was: “There are parts of it that probably should be shut down.”
The sentence was uttered during a long discussion on the need to make repairs on the 39-year-old building, an issue that has been kicking around Derby for years.
Click the audio clip below for context.
Dugatto, who lives and owns a business a stone’s throw from the garage and has parked her car there for years, opposed closing the garage, as did Aldermen Barbara DeGennaro, Peter Olenoski, Stephen Iacuone and Felicia Monaco.
Dugatto thought shutting the garage was an overreaction, but she said the majority of the city’s legislative body decided to do so, as is their right.
“An engineer has been there already,” Dugatto said about 11 a.m. Friday.
Lenart and Dugatto discussed the matter Friday morning in her office.
The on-street parking situation Friday in Derby wasn’t terribly chaotic. There were plenty of metered spots on Elizabeth Street and on Minerva Street along the Derby Green.
It wasn’t clear whether parking enforcement officers were giving tickets Friday. One vehicle that apparently pays monthly fees at the garage parked at a meter Friday on Third Street and left a note behind explaining they shouldn’t be ticketed for not filling the meter.
An open question — there are people who live in apartment complexes on Olivia Street who pay to park in the garage. If they can’t get back into the garage, and the structure remains closed, where are they supposed to park if there’s a snowstorm Monday?
Dugatto said there is a large public parking lot on Caroline Street across from Calvert Safe and Lock. Click here for a map.
“We’ll see where this goes,” Dugatto said.
The Aldermen’s move Thursday was not driven by political affiliation. Lenart and Olenoski are the only Republicans on the board, and they voted in opposite ways. The Dems were split, too.
Lenart said Friday the city had to make an emergency decision based on what parking authority members and their engineer told the Board of Aldermen.
“I might be the most hated man in the City of Derby right now, but it’s better to err on the side of caution,” he said.
