MONROE - Business owners who want more designated parking spaces around the downtown Square can bring their concerns to the Common Council after all.
The council voted 9-1 Tuesday to discuss a petition signed by 34 business owners supporting additional parking spaces at the next council meeting Aug. 3. Alderman Charles Koch voted against the motion.
Nancy Maliszewski, owner of Nancy's Ladies Apparel on 11th Street, originally brought the petition to the city's Public Safety Committee July 6. Maliszewski said she has no parking in front of her store, which is located at the end of a crosswalk.
But the Public Safety Committee voted 3-0 to take no action for three months on the request for additional parking spaces along the outer most curb in the mid-block crosswalks on the Square.
The committee's vote left business owners with little recourse to address their parking needs because the motion did not include any recommendation to the full council, which would have automatically placed the issue on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
Aldermen Thurston Hanson and Dan Henke spoke Tuesday in support of letting the public speak on the parking issue, even if the council does not change the committee's decision to wait three months.
Henke said the business owners who signed the petition should not have to wait three months, which is the "busiest time for them."
Kelly Finkenbinder, Public Works director, said the city is preparing for Cheese Days, which is Sept. 17 to 19, and will paint parking areas this week.
Any action the council might take would not slow down city work, and if council did allow parking in the crosswalks, it would require "just adding one stripe," Henke said.
Getting the business owners' parking concerns onto the council agenda was shot down at a council meeting earlier this month.
Following the committee's vote July 6, Thurston Hanson, alderman for the downtown ward, tried unsuccessfully to get the issue placed on a future council agenda. Although Mayor Bill Ross initially agreed July 6 to honor Hanson's request, the following day he issued a memo retracting that permission.
Ross said he felt the "proper way" to add issues to the agenda was for the council president to make the request through a motion, and to get a second on the motion.
The process allows council members to debate the motion and to vote to add agenda items. The vote determines whether the council wants to discuss the issue on the table, he said.
Ross told council members Tuesday that he would not take the power to decide agenda items away from the council.
The council voted 9-1 Tuesday to discuss a petition signed by 34 business owners supporting additional parking spaces at the next council meeting Aug. 3. Alderman Charles Koch voted against the motion.
Nancy Maliszewski, owner of Nancy's Ladies Apparel on 11th Street, originally brought the petition to the city's Public Safety Committee July 6. Maliszewski said she has no parking in front of her store, which is located at the end of a crosswalk.
But the Public Safety Committee voted 3-0 to take no action for three months on the request for additional parking spaces along the outer most curb in the mid-block crosswalks on the Square.
The committee's vote left business owners with little recourse to address their parking needs because the motion did not include any recommendation to the full council, which would have automatically placed the issue on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
Aldermen Thurston Hanson and Dan Henke spoke Tuesday in support of letting the public speak on the parking issue, even if the council does not change the committee's decision to wait three months.
Henke said the business owners who signed the petition should not have to wait three months, which is the "busiest time for them."
Kelly Finkenbinder, Public Works director, said the city is preparing for Cheese Days, which is Sept. 17 to 19, and will paint parking areas this week.
Any action the council might take would not slow down city work, and if council did allow parking in the crosswalks, it would require "just adding one stripe," Henke said.
Getting the business owners' parking concerns onto the council agenda was shot down at a council meeting earlier this month.
Following the committee's vote July 6, Thurston Hanson, alderman for the downtown ward, tried unsuccessfully to get the issue placed on a future council agenda. Although Mayor Bill Ross initially agreed July 6 to honor Hanson's request, the following day he issued a memo retracting that permission.
Ross said he felt the "proper way" to add issues to the agenda was for the council president to make the request through a motion, and to get a second on the motion.
The process allows council members to debate the motion and to vote to add agenda items. The vote determines whether the council wants to discuss the issue on the table, he said.
Ross told council members Tuesday that he would not take the power to decide agenda items away from the council.