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Council says no to early parking

A request by the owner of Curves to allow for early morning parking in the 300 block of Oliver Street has been denied by the city.

A request by the owner of Curves to allow for early morning parking in front of her business in the 300 block of Oliver Street has been denied by the city because it will interrupt snow removal.

In a letter to city council Curves’ owner Anne Schonke requested parking be allowed at 6 a.m. rather than 7 a.m.

“I’m not asking that the whole downtown core be changed,” Schonke noted. “There are various valid reasons why women want to work out at that time.”

After word got out the request had been denied by city council, Curves assistant manager Kirstyn Schonke received a call from the franchise’s landlord Thursday morning offering a solution.

“He told me we can use the J & E Gifts parking spots in the lot a few doors down until 9 a.m. so that was very nice of them,” Kirstyn said.

There is parking for Curves in the back alley, but it’s dark in the morning, she added.

“We’ve never had a problem with the parking until the last two years,” she said.

“Some of our ladies received warning letters for parking on the street.”

Before council voted in favour of staff’s recommendation to deny the request at the regular meeting Tuesday, Coun. Ivan Bonnell said a year and a half ago the no parking was changed to the hours between 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. for public for works to conduct snow removal.

“It’s uniform throughout the whole community and we do not support moving now to having different spot zones, in different blocks with different hours,” Bonnell said. “Staff will not be able to respond adequately to do snow removal.”

While council voted unanimously in favour of denying the request, Kirstyn said she still wished the city would allow the early parking.

“They could clear our part of the street before 6 a.m. and then our ladies would feel safe parking outside,” she said.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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