I sat in on the Coos County Commission meeting today which was to expressly address the matter of converting the old annex next to the Old City Hall into parking. Terence O’Connor and John Higgins were representing the City and the topic veered off the annex and meeting the parking needs of downtown merchants onto meeting the needs of the court house and its employees and trial jurors.
While very little time was spent talking about the annex the overall consensus appeared to be that the county will sell it thereby placing it on the tax roll to generate revenue for the county. Steve Tucker of Tucker Appliances apparently wants to buy the property but is concerned about ruffling feathers at City Hall. O’Connor assured him that the City would do everything they could to entice a new business into Coquille, (everything except solve the parking problem).
The County seemed predisposed to looking into a parking permit relationship with the City on behalf of court house employees although O’Connor seemed to think the City Council would be uninterested in doing that. Probably a disappointing meeting from the standpoint of the downtown merchants.
Commissioner Whitty told O’Connor that he could report back to the council that the County was ‘working on it’.
