BY NAOMI KOWLES
For the Star Journal

A newcomer to the Brown Street community, Jesse Killieas, currently parks at either McDonalds or Farmer’s Feed Store before walking back to his apartment on north Brown Street, a distance made difficult because of a respiratory condition.

“I have to stop three or four or five times, sometimes,” he said.

Several residents from apartments on Brown Street attended Rhinelander’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday to discuss overnight parking concerns. City ordinances and winter plowing requirements prevent parking between 3 and 6 a.m., forcing residents to look elsewhere for overnight parking.

The issue was brought before the committee in hopes for a solution via a permitting process or overnight parking permission along the street. Business needs and long-term parking concerns such as oil leaks make long term parking on the street impossible, Rhinelander police chief Lloyd Gauthier explained.

“Shouldn’t we as residents get just as much consideration?” Killieas asked.

“We’re government, and we run on the speed of snot,” chairperson Steve Sauer noted, explaining that research needed to be done to discover what the city’s options were to create better overnight parking options for Brown Street renters.

Temporarily, Sauer recommended that the best temporary solution would be to put concerned renters in touch with the owner of the back parking lots, Grimgribber Properties LLC, for a temporary permitting solution.

Another Brown Street resident pointed out that the parking lot by Diel Insurance would be a much closer walk.

“That, again, is an ordinance change,” Sauer noted.

Another issue raised at the meeting involved short term parking options for taxi cabs, another shortage at the apartment area.

The committee decided to forward the issue to city attorney Carrie Miljevich for review before returning to the Public Safety Committee for further discussion in September.