PAID PARKING INITIATED ON MAIN

 In case you missed it … two hour parking signs went up on Main Street this week for the first-time ever. 

The new parking rules have met with mixed response. 

It seems the parties hit hardest by this new regulation are the businesses themselves. The new time limits have many business owners asking “why?” 

Karl Teller of Mammoth Chevron said that he has already gotten a ticket on a car that his shop was preparing to service. 

“Sometimes when we fill up the parking in front of the garage, we have AAA drop cars in front of the Napa sign so we can coast them down to the garage,” Teller said. “We had a BMW up there that got a ticket after an hour and a half.” 

Now Teller has his employees put signs on their car that say, “local, don’t ticket.” 

This hasn’t worked. 

Spike Todd, owner of Mammoth Liquor, doesn’t understand the purpose of the regulations. 

“People aren’t drinking at Slocums for more than two hours, and if they are then they shouldn’t be driving,” Todd said. 

He tried to guess why the town made the new regulation, “I’ve seen people park her and take the shuttle up to the mountain. Maybe that’s why.” 

Tom Cage, who owns a few of the properties along Main Street, including an interest in Mammoth Chevron, disagrees with his partner, Teller. He said that he supports the ordinance. 

“If people take the town parking spots and jump on a shuttle that’s bad for the businesses on Main Street. I’ve got no problem with the police enforcing it.” 

Karl Teller said he was told that the purpose of the regulation was not to keep people from parking and taking the shuttle, but to keep sight lines to the new sidewalk clear so that more people would use it. 

Representatives from the Town of Mammoth Lakes did not answer The Sheet’s inquiries about the ordinance by press time. 

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