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Petroglyph Press, Ltd. ~~,~la~ Old Town Printers & Stationers Basically Books 160 Kamehameha Avenue • Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Phone (808) 935-8927 • Fax (808) 935-1553 ~ R[c~veD 3r- ~me..~_ . By..----------.: Dear Council Chairman, James Y. Arakaki oare..~ srsT~_-...-_.--. _ _ County Council~~nW ~~C This is a personal plea for your support of the upcoming resolution at the County Council Meeting of Public Works and Parks on June 15th to support the extension of the free pazking in downtown Hilo. You have an opportunity to do something positive for your hometown of Downtown Hilo. You have the support of a vast majority of the downtown merchants who feel that the free parking has had a positive effect on their businesses. Having to pay for parking is one of the few things that negatively sets downtown apart from the malls. The coming of the big box retailers has already and will continue to cause the demise of businesses throughout Hilo. It is time for you to help your downtown com- pete against this invasion. It is not so much the fact of having to pay for parking that is the deterrent to shopping downtown, but the overzealous ticketing of expired meters at $25 a pop which caused the permanent loss of customers. Years ago it was the Downtown Improvement Assoc. which convinced the County to buy the three wheelers in order to facilitate the enforcement of the time limits, not the expired meters. Even after years of repeated requests for this enforcement, it is not regularly done. Is it from a lack of money for chalk? This laxity leads to abuse by downtown employees who are not conscious of the need to reserve parking near stores for customers. It saddens us to hear that the rational for keeping the meters is the maintaining of three county jobs, especially in a time of economic woes statewide that has caused the loss of many jobs in the private sector. We, as business owners, have had to cut staffand personal compensation and feel strongly that government should do the same, thus lessening your burden onus. Many more jobs than three have been lost downtown because of the meters. Government must lessen the burden on small business if it ever expects to stop the bur- geoningbankruptcy rate and its decreasing revenues of taxes. We need to make a change that breaks these downwazd trends. We need positive feedback from our council which will allow those of us who remain in business to have a positive vision of the future of downtown. We need to be the "town who got rid of their meters". , ~w,,, N~ xa. Tk.F B,ef. g'rn P~assate~ R+at. Ill~1e dR! 2 4 t4aa