Action Line: Cops have one parking spot in lot downtown

Question -- I park downtown sometimes behind Nelson's Office Supply and 25 percent of the parking spots in the lot there are for the police, but I never see a cop car there. How many parking spots do the police need down there? I can't get around very well and would like to be able to park closer to where I need to go.

Answer -- Fred Jones, Greeley traffic services manager, said there's only one spot in the parking lot for the police officers there to serve the downtown Greeley substation and he's right.

There are many parking spots in the lot that you are talking about off 7th Street and 8th Avenue, but you need an area H permit to park in most of them. There are three two-hour parking spaces in the lot that were empty when I went there to take a look at how many spaces there are. The police are entitled to the parking because they have a building in the Chase annex, Jones said. There's also a lot of Chase customer/employee parking in the lot.

There is free parking on 7th Street and on 9th Avenue on either side of the Chase building, which Jones suggests you use if you can't park in the lot. You can also call the city's finance department to see what you can do to get a parking permit for the lot or if you are disabled, you can get a handicapped parking sticker that will allow you to park in one of four handicapped spots in the lot.

Question -- Every month when I get my Greeley water bill they always send an envelope with my bill. Problem is that the city takes the money for my bill straight out of my checking account every month. How many people automatically get these envelopes even though they have automatic pay? It seems like a waste.

<strong>HAVE A QUESTION</strong> Call Andrew Villegas at (970) 392-4423 or e-mail him at avillegas@greeleytribune.com.

Answer -- Tim Nash, Greeley finance director, said not many people take advantage of the service to have money automatically deducted from their accounts to pay their water bills.

City workers are stuffing envelopes to send to people in different regions of the city every day, Nash said. There are 83 "routes" of residents -- about 25,000 people -- in Greeley that are billed each month and each of these routes only has about a half dozen people that pay by automatic withdraw, Nash said. About 1,480 customers get the money they owe taken directly out of their accounts, Nash said.

Nash said it would be difficult to take out the envelopes for the people who auto pay, and that it would actually cost the city more to do than just putting envelopes in each bill.

The eventual goal, Nash said, is to e-mail bills to customers who have money taken out of their checking accounts instead of mailing them a bill, though no such plan is imminent.

Gas stations must provide service to disabled

A reader called me this week to say that the federal government ensures that the disabled receive help when trying to pump gas at self-serve gas stations.

According to the Department of Justice:

"The Americans with Disabilities Act requires self-serve gas stations to provide equal access to their customers with disabilities. If necessary to provide access, gas stations must:

* Provide refueling assistance upon the request of an individual with a disability. A service station or convenience store is not required to provide such service at any time that it is operating on a remote control basis with a single employee, but is encouraged to do so, if feasible.

* Let patrons know (through appropriate signs) that customers with disabilities can obtain refueling assistance by either honking or otherwise signaling an employee.

* Provide the refueling assistance without any charge beyond the self-serve price.