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Letter: Parking issue resolved (for now)

To the editor:

At the last council meeting the council was swift and decisive. So how did they solve the parking on Route 66? They voted 5-0 to extend the restrictions an extra two blocks. My wife Amy suggested alternate sides of the street and not weekends and holidays. This pretty much reflects the views of the letters in the newspaper.

The girl/daughter/secretary of the insurance guy that did a lot of complaining in a letter last week got her wish for us to move our vehicles back into our parking lot to protect her porch view. The day after her letter, someone slashed the tires on the truck and the police gave me 72 hours to move it. The police did tell me I could return the truck after the tires were replaced. The investigating officer is the same whom arrested me. The up side to this is our parking lot now has three fewer spots for our guests.

When we bought this hotel there were no parking restrictions on Route 66 but the trinket sales guy and his wife wanted the streets clean so they got the marshal to pass the one block no parking ordnance and then posted signs down Route 66. The hotel had been closed 35 years so parking was not much of an issue. As the business grew and the parking ordinance came to be, we bought the building behind us and got three more parking spots.

Now most of the year the village and our hotel are doing well. We are a seasonal business. The market tells us when to open and close. 27 rooms equal 27 vehicles minus the 10 spots we have for our guests. Well, that means 17 cars are on the street. Not next to the insurance guy though. This "old time resident" leaves his trashcans on the street to save two spots 24/7. If our guest moves the trashcans onto the sidewalk he confronts them.

The mayor and his posse have fixed the tickets side to the problem as well. Those that have followed this issue know I picked up seven tickets off our guest cars to go to justice court to defend the guests or pay the tickets. I am not above the law and firmly believe in protecting the peace, serving the public and the preservation of law and order.

Here's the rub. One gets a ticket, but you can't see the judge until the next business day and then he sets a hearing to hear you. Generally a couple of weeks go by. By then our guest are back in their home countries. Well, the mayor fixed this too. Now only the registered owner of the car can fight the ticket. Think rental car corporation, not the driver. And there is only one sign per block and it doesn't meet the national standard, etc. So if you get a ticket and you don't own the car you can't go to court. I did have standing because the justice court judge allowed me to represent past guests. So I picked up the tickets of our guests and was arrested.

Our judge reversed himself and said he "errored," and I could no longer represent the guest but I could pay the tickets. I did so for $693.00. My pre-trial conference for picking up the tickets and paying them is set for Sept. 5 at 2:30 p.m. in Williams Justice Court.

Running this city is tough. We all have an idea of what should be done and how to do it. We tell those guys what and how to do it. We elected them right?

My wife and I are very sorry for all the discontent our efforts have created. We believe change is healthy and good for the community. We had no intentions to "buck" the system. We will do our best to confine our efforts to maintaining our building and providing income for the 18 employees, and income to other business from the 5,498 guests we have referred off the building this year. Please accept our apology, and we will try our best to do better.

Oscar and Amy Fredrickson

Williams


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