Parking lots from hell

Longview has started another school year and it is facing a problem it has never faced before. According to registrar Kathy Hale, there are 6,788 students at Longview, a substantial increase, but this is not the problem being discussed.

The problem facing Longview Community College is parking. According to Security Manager Lyle Koch, there are a total of only 1,834 parking spots in the seven parking lots.

During the first week of classes, cars were double parked, cars were parked on the grass and in every available space, whether it was for parking or not. First-year student Adam McKay, who never had to walk from one part of a campus to another, said, “It was nuts out there. I’ve never seen a school parking lot like this.” Student Brandon Bell described it as “kind of cluttered, but not that bad.”

“It’s always hectic when school starts,” said Janet Cline, dean of student development and facilities. Anticipating the chaos, Longview matched it by borrowing parking behind the Rec Center from Jackson County Parks and Recreation. Signs directing students to the newest overflow spaces were in place by the end of the very first day of school.

According to Koch, the many parking tickets that have been written can range from $25 per parking ticket to $50 per unauthorized parking in disabled parking spots. Failure to pay will result in restriction of grades, enrollment and transcripts.

Parking woes have been complicated by the traffic tie-ups at the intersection of Third and View High. Gale Communities’ construction project on the southeast corner of the intersection has diverted traffic from other streets into the intersection, while adding numerous heavy equipment vehicles and semi-trucks to the mix.

Lee’s Summit police had pledged to contribute a traffic officer, according to an e-mail from college president Fred Grogan, but no officers appeared during the first week of classes. The LSPD is currently contributing a few hours per week of traffic direction, but tie-ups remain a problem. On Friday, Sep. 12, the intersection was jammed for approximately 40 minutes.

“We don’t have an insufficient quantity of parking but we do have insufficient quantity of convient parking,” said Cline. “It takes an estimated four to five minutes to walk [to a classroom] from the Rec Center.”