Letter to the Editor: Students take advantage of church parking

University UMC (United Methodist Church) is happy to provide parking spaces to Washburn students, however some parking spaces are marked Reserved for Church Business, the Admin. Asst., and Pastor. Every day students are parking in the reserved spaces and even the disabled spaces without having a disabled plate or placard. 

When students park in the reserved spaces, there is no parking when people come here for church business to park. We have been placing a notice asking students not to park in the reserved spaces. Some students pay no attention to the notice and continue to park in the reserved spaces. 

We are now writing down the license plate number of the cars illegally parked. After the owner has been issued one notice, and parks in a reserved space, they will receive a final notice. If they are parked in a reserved space a third time, we will have the car towed at the owner’s expense. 

While we do not wish to have cars towed, we can not continue to have students park in the reserved spaces. Please respect the church’s reserved spaces and do not park in them. Please do not leave your vehicle over night. 

There are occasions where the lot will be closed to students. Twice a year when we have the Thrift Sales, when there is a funeral and other special occasions. The lot is roped off the evening before the event at 9:00 p.m. so please be out of the lot by 9. When we know in advance of the lot being closed, we will put notices on the vehicles. 

Also, would you respect the parking lot and not throw trash form your vehicle. The trash makes to parking lot look bad and church staff must clean it up. 

If we continue to have these problems we will have to shut the lot down for Washburn students to park here. We want to avoid shutting down the lot, so please do not park in reserved spaces and keep the lot clean. 

Thank you.

Submitted by Stacey Cooper, United Methodist Church Administrative Assistant