Oxford parking: Letter writer urges caution

A letter writer urges caution as Oxford Borough Council mulls decision on new parking garage.

I have been to several Oxford Borough Council meetings and they offer a four minute time limit for people to express their opinion about anything.

Recently several people expressed concern about the Oxford Borough Parking Garage project. The council let the people speak and after they were through said “thank you” and the person sat down. No discussion was done to address the people’s concern about the parking garage. The council just let the people vent.

I think some of the Oxford Borough Council members have blinders on and don’t listen when it comes to the concerns of the Oxford residents about the parking garage.

The council is proceeding with their agenda to get this parking garage started regardless of the Oxford community vocalizing their concerns.

Little does the public know that the council doesn’t have all the money they need to complete the $7 million parking garage. In fact they are $3 million short and yet they are intending to go ahead with the project. They also found that the ground wasn’t dense enough to hold the parking structure and will have to pay an additional $300,000 to have the ground packed denser to hold the parking garage structure.

Who is going to pay for the deficit? Does the Borough Council increase taxes on the Oxford Borough residents? Does the Borough Council increase the parking meters and fines to foot that deficit and continue to drive people away from shopping in downtown Oxford?

The whole parking garage debacle in Oxford, including the parking kiosks, is stressful. My patients are watching their time in my office for fear of getting a parking ticket. Many people don’t know where the parking lot kiosks are or how to use them... Some say what’s a kiosk? Many people will walk a few blocks to avoid the kiosks. The parking lot kiosks have turned people away from shopping in downtown Oxford. There are also parking lot attendants employed by the Oxford Borough who are “aggressively” giving parking tickets/fines for people using the parking lots even if they are one minute over time. I even had one patient get a parking ticket before he got out of his car.

When I expressed the problems my patients are having with the parking lot kiosks one of the Oxford Council members said “you must have a lot of old people in your office.” A few days later he apologized. I asked him to come to my office and listen to my office staff to let him know what they hear every day about the kiosk parking. He said he would come but that was over two months ago and said he is too busy to come to my office.

The Borough is in the process of condemning a portion of my property to make way for the parking garage. How much more can I take? It is my understanding that the Borough Council members are elected to represent the people of Oxford. If they are too busy they should resign from the Borough Council.

It’s a shame that because of the parking kiosks fines and penalties for parking in that several businesses can’t survive economically and are leaving . They are going out of town where you are not fined for parking while shopping. So the Borough is making money by parking fines but losing businesses.

The mentality of the Oxford Borough is “build the parking garage and businesses will come” because right now the parking lots are not full. So how can the Oxford Borough expect to fill over 300 parking spaces when the parking lots are only partially used now?

My business, Oxford Family Eyecare, is directly affected by the Oxford parking garage because my office is in the middle of the 2” street parking lot. My Grandfather started the practice and it is now three generations old over a span of 100 years.

The Borough Council is neglecting the draw we have with our patients coming to Oxford. We have asked the Borough Council for patient parking during construction but were told that we could only have six spaces for three months and after three month there will be no parking for our patients.

After three months they will erect a construction fence around three sides of my office building. The garage construction is slated to be eleven months long or more. Again, how much more can I take?

The Oxford Borough Council meets the third Monday of each month to vote on certain items at the Oxford Senior Center at 7 p.m. There is a special meeting August 20 (tonight) at 6 p.m. The public is welcome to attend the meeting and witness the future of Oxford.

Dr. Malcolm Kelly Oxford Family Eyecare