Tuesday, April 22, 1997
Council asked to allow valet service operation
on Pine Street
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
Because parking is driving away his customers, Bill Bedford
wants to drive his customers to parking.
The owner of the Abilene Coffee Co. is asking the Abilene City
Council for a street use license granting him use of a portion
of the Pine Street right-of-way to operate a valet service.
If approved Thursday, customers will wheel their cars to the
curb at North 4th and Pine for a valet to park in a nearby garage
Bedford is renting. They'll be charged $1 per hour for parking.
Though conceived as a service for his latte-loving clientele,
Bedford won't limit its use to his customers. He expects the valet
service to be a break-even proposition at best, hoping it will
increase his business by 20 percent.
"Parking is one of the biggest problems down here,"
he explained. "Parking on Pine is the worst. I've had customers
circle the block three times and go home.
"It's hurting the whole downtown," he added. "It's
one of the major complaints. I think this will help all the businesses
down here."
Bedford is renting an 18-space garage behind his coffeehouse.
He hopes to begin offering the service the first week of May,
operating it from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and on Friday
and Saturday nights.
The city plans to move two handicap spaces 40 feet to accommodate
the valet.
"It's an innovative approach," City Manager Lanny
Lambert said. "We'd like to see how it works out."
Though Bedford praised Abilene's as "one of the nicest
downtowns around," he noted parking has grown scarcer as
it attracts more business. While his customers seem satisfied
with his coffeehouse's menu, ambience and location, Bedford said
business has been only "fair" and below his expectations
when he opened in the first floor of the Windsor Apartments a
year and a half ago.
Bedford has asked the city to waive its $240 street use license
fee, arguing he is attempting to reduce parking problems and promote
downtown. While city administrators support the project, they
oppose foregoing the fee.
In other business, the council will open bids at 11 a.m. and
sell $2.4 million in certificates of obligation to the lowest
interest rate bidder.
The certificates will finance improvements ranging from the
continued reconstruction of Judge Ely Boulevard to modifications
to the zoo's elephant barn.
The certificates, calculated so they won't raise the property
tax rate, will be repaid over 15 years. City administrators are
forecasting an interest rate of approximately 5.5 percent.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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