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New Service Begins To Ease Parking Squeeze Caused By Casino Construction

WAMC

    The biggest construction project in Springfield, Massachusetts in nearly 50 years is causing downtown parking woes. The proposed solution to the problem: free valet parking.

       Valet parking is now being offered at no charge to patrons of businesses located along four blocks of South Main street that have been impacted by the loss of hundreds of on-street and off-street parking spaces because of the MGM Springfield Casino construction project.

   An average of 25 drivers a day used the service in the first week since it launched January 17, according to Tom Moore, interim director of the Springfield Parking Authority.

    "So far the results have been encouraging considering we started it in the middle of the winter and it is very new," said Moore.

     The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted to pay for the valet parking program out of a multi-million dollar Community Mitigation fund.  The commission authorized a 90-day pilot program, with up to $200,000 available if it continues for a full year.

   "We are very confident the demand is there and the ( money) was granted for good cause," said Moore.

  The parking authority contracted with Valet Park of America to run the service. Parking attendant Austin Kirby said feedback from patrons who have used the service in its early days has been positive.

  " It is tough finding ( parking ) spots around here. So, we break the barrier and help people get in and out," he said between parking cars this week.

   The city applied to the gaming commission for funds to set up the valet parking program at the urging of officials with Caring Health Center, which operates a large medical clinic right across the street from the casino construction zone.

  The health clinic sees an average of 160 patients per day with more than half arriving by private car, according to Caring Health president and CEO Tania Barber, who said the parking woes caused a real hardship.

   " A lot of our patients were not keeping their appointments because they did not want to deal with not having a place to park," she said.

   Caring Health did some advertising, including a direct mailing, to get the word out about the new valet parking service.

    Barber said, so far, the valet parking appears to be working well.

     "Patients who have used it have given us great feedback and are really pleased with the service," she said in an interview.

    The valet parking is provided outside the entrance to Caring Health’s building Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

    The casino construction is scheduled to continue for another 18 months. 

   

 

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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