Signs, Patrols Cut Ramp Issues
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New signs have at least temporarily alleviated some of the issues in Jamestown's parking ramps.
Several people have been charged with trespassing in the ramps since new signs were installed in late August stating the ramps are private property and that those who loiter or trespass will be prosecuted. Jamestown police have also been much more visible patrolling the areas around the city's parking ramps.
Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward 4 and city Housing Committee chairwoman, asked Tim Jackson, Jamestown police chief and public safety director, if the signs had helped now that they've been up for about a month.
"We've made, I want to say off the top of my head, at least 20 arrests because of the signs that have been put up for trespassing, for people trespassing in the parking ramps," Jackson said. "Off the top of my head I don't believe we've had any criminal mischief complaints since we've put the signs up and started making arrests."
The ramps made news in August when Sarah Zinni, a county Department of Mental Health employee who parks in the Spring Street parking ramp for work, had her vehicle damaged while she was working. Zinni had been told at least eight other vehicles had been vandalized in or near the parking garage that week, while county employees received an email just days before Zinni's car was damaged that there had been a string of vehicle break-ins. Several county employees then attended the next City Council meeting to voice their concerns.
The complaints prompted the installation of signs Jackson had called for roughly a year before following a Jamestown residents' complaint that the ramps were unsafe. That 2022 incident prompted discussion of new security cameras and lighting in city parking ramps -- with that work now going out to bid.
New lights and security cameras in parking ramps at Spring and Cherry streets will cost about $250,000.
"Marie, just to follow up, the DPW is starting the bid out process for it as well," Sundquist said of the lights and cameras.