Latest from Brenner and Kremen on the dry dock parking situation.
—–Forwarded Message—–
>From: thetome@lummiislandcable.com
>Sent: Sep 7, 2011 8:32 AM
>To: thetome@lummiislandcable.com
>Subject: c Brown Betty: Parking at Gooseberry Point
>
>
>The out-of-control dry dock parking situation at Gooseberry has been extremely stressful to many Lummi Islanders whose lives depend upon reliable parking.
The following two communications about resolving the situation finally, but too late for many – arrived late last evening.
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>(1) From Barbara Brenner.
Please notice how hard everyone has been trying. Bottom line, the Lummis changed their minds about providing the same amount of parking spaces for free.
This is according to our executive, who has been trying to keep everyone updated.
Obviously if a party suddenly and unilaterally changes its mind, it will take some time to figure out how to compensate for that.
>
So here is where we are. I am sorry but now we need a different solution. I just spoke to the executive and told him I support whatever he needs to do to provide more parking. As a council member I have no authority in drydocking issues. But I do support the administration in finding another solution and they are trying to do so.
I do understand all the stress and frustration being experienced by Islanders but I also hope you all can muster some more patience until this is resolved, and I do believe it will be resolved. wish I could do more. For some days I can drive some people to the ferry. I have long days
lately, from early morning to late evening but I can try my best to drive people who are desperate. It will just be pretty late. If you need to contact me tomorrow, e-mail me at my home address AND at my council address because I will be at the office in the afternoon.
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>Barbara Brenner
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>================+=========
>>(2)
>From Pete Kremen
We just realized today that there are probably about 40-45 spaces short of meeting demand.
We asked the council a couple of weeks ago if they were willing to spend the extra 15 thousand dollars or so to provide additional parking accommodations with a shuttle service and they refused to meet to let us know what they think we should do. Barbara and Carl Weimer were the only council members willing to meet.
To be fair, the Lummi’s twice last week led us to believe that the usual 90 additional spaces for dry dock would be provided by the Lummi Nation at no charge, however just this morning we were told that they would provide enough spaces for only about an additional 50 cars. We are considering deploying a shuttle service to an area about a mile from the landing, but the owner of the property, a Lummi tribal member, is asking for a $20 charge per vehicle per week. This is in addition to the estimated $12,000 it would cost to provide the shuttle service to and from the temporary lot.
More scrutiny of the situation will be applied tomorrow to see how we should proceed with possible alternatives to serve the Lummi Islanders’ needs.
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>Pete Kremen
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