BRATTLEBORO — Hopefully more and more people will join the growing movement to have Brattleboro either step up or tear down the parking garage.
A huge number of people no longer park there because the town has abdicated its basic duty to taxpayers and citizens to maintain the garage.
Let's go through some basic undisputed facts about its current state:
• Trash and stains punctuate the parking garage. Parking enforcement told me there used to be a full-time caretaker of the garage and now that person's job was cut to only four hours. Everyone feels this is unacceptable; there needs to be a full-time caretaker.
• It looks like the last time the street sweeper went through the parking garage was when Dwight Eisenhower was president. The buildup of dust, dirt, and motor oil runoff from parked cars is enough to dissolve the rubber on your shoes.
• When it is raining outside, it pours inside the parking garage. The seals in the seams between levels have failed, which allows all the rainwater to pour through. And it's not nice and clean rainwater, it is rainwater mixed with all the dirty motor vehicle buildup contamination from above.
The garage has become a sanitation and health hazard. People urinate in the corners, adding to the bubonic cocktail of neglect that has become our town parking garage.
This town needs to immediately allocate greater police officer resources downtown and a full-time parking garage caretaker.
And, if the town will not take responsibility for basic upkeep of the garage, then please tear it down.