It look's like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.
Some Springfield residents have questions about certain individuals requesting money at downtown parking lots. KSMU’s Katie Easley has this report.
Springfield Parking Company is one business downtown that accepts cash in exchange for parking in various private lots. Alex Scott, spokesman for Springfield Parking Company, says if people choose to park in their lots, it’s important to make sure they get a receipt from the employee who approaches them to make sure their cash is going to the company.
“The only way they can feel confident about it is if they get a receipt in return either a parking ticket, or we always give out stubs. There is a two piece parking ticket that we give. Part of it is for our own auditing purposes and the other part of it is the ticket number and the liability policy on it. They should always get a parking receipt,” says Scott.
Scott says that he’s had some employees pocket the cash when they weren’t supposed to.
“I have never had a complaint, but you know we go through quite a few employees, we’ve had our issues with our own employees stealing from us,” says Scott.
Scott also says all of their parking lots have visible signs that say people must pay to park there. Only a few of their lots have booths at the entrance, so a lot of times employees approach people after they have parked to get their money.
“We always have a policy, we stand way back from the car. We stand back about 10-15 feet from the back of the car, and when they get out we greet ourselves and tell them however much it is to pay to park,” says Scott.
Rusty Worley, director of the Urban District Alliance, encourages anyone heading downtown to check out the city’s free lots before paying up to park.
“There’s over 6,000 free parking spaces scattered throughout the downtown area within walking distance highlighted by the two parking garages on either side of Hollywood theatres, those offer almost 1,000 spaces by themselves,” says Worley.
You can find more information on downtown parking at http://www.itsalldowntown.com.
For KSMU News, I’m Katie Easley.
