Last month EvCC began charging a $1 fee and established a two-hour limit for visitor parking in an effort to make a more efficient parking system.

Jene Ladke, director of campus health, safety and security, says that this change is necessary in order to maximize the number of visitors that can use these spaces.

"We don't have enough space to provide adequate parking for everybody," Ladke said. "We believe that by having pay visitor parking we will be able to take, for example, ten visitor parking spaces and be able to use them four or five times a day."

Before the policy change the school was losing an estimated $5 for every guest that used those spaces. Labor costs as well as the cost of parking permits contributed mostly to this loss.

"We were actually spending a lot of money that we could spend elsewhere to provide this convenience to visitors," said Ladke. "We feel we've become more efficient, we can spend our money in other ways to improve the conditions for overall parking and have better control of visitors."

The fee is in effect Monday through Friday, but parking is free in the spots on the weekends. There is a machine located on the south side of the Parks Student Union Building and payment is also accepted via the cashiers' office in Jackson Center.

The money that is obtained through the visitor parking fees will go directly back into the parking budget.

Ladke says that parking garages may also be a possibility in the future, but for now it is outside of the budget. "That's something that down the road, if the funding could be found, would be a way to go as far as taking up less square foot, but providing multiple levels of parking,"

There is also a plan to pave a new parking lot this summer to increase student parking by one hundred spaces. This new parking lot will be constructed in the empty lot where the Topper Motel was on Broadway St., a good four-minute walk away from the campus.

"This summer, when they start the new gym building, we're going to lose some parking again just east of the transit center," Ladke said. "We're hoping to pick up the slack by the Topper and by some temporary parking at the old gym building."

There is also new carpool parking available for students who drive to school via carpool. "We've had a few students apply, but we still have 10 carpool slots," said Ladke.