SEMO students to be temporarily displaced by parking project

~ An estimated 1,000 to 1,200 students will be affected by the loss of parking spaces.

A $2.8 million federally funded project to provide more and better parking at Southeast Missouri State University's New Madrid Street lot will force students to park elsewhere on campus during construction.

The work will result in the loss of about 500 parking spaces in the lot commonly known as "Pig Lot," starting March 19 and extending throughout the summer, university officials said.

Students will feel the parking crunch when they return from the weeklong spring break and classes resume March 26.

"You can bet there will be gnashing of teeth," said Keith Kimmel, facilities management project manager. "It will be an annoyance."

Adam Hana, student government president from Sparta, Ill., said the temporary loss of parking spaces will inconvenience students. "I anticipate significant grumbling anytime something like that happens," he said.

But Hanna applauded the university for its plan to inform students in advance of fencing off the parking spots. The impact, he said, will be felt largely by commuter and freshmen students.

Southeast parking and transit manager Beth Glaus said the university has other lots where students will be able to park during the construction.

Some students who live on campus and park their cars in "Pig Lot" will be allowed to park in empty spaces in Towers complex and Greek Housing parking lots and in the lot next to Houck Field House, Glaus said. Those spaces will be offered to upperclassmen first, she said.

Others who will be allowed to park in the lower level of the existing parking structure west of the Student Recreation Center and in the gravel lot immediately north of the construction site. The upper level of the existing parking structure will be closed during construction, officials said.

Students who park their cars in the New Madrid Street lot but live in Myers Hall, New Hall or Dearmont on the south side of campus will be allowed to park their vehicles in the faculty/staff lot adjacent to Houck Field House and in the lot next to the former First Baptist Church on Broadway.

Commuter students with perimeter parking permits will be allowed to use unaffected parking spaces to the south and west of the construction site and the open surface lot spaces around the Show Me Center, Glaus said.

The university's Department of Public Safety plans to contact students by e-mail and by letter to inform them of the situation. Posters will be placed at shuttle bus stops, inside the shuttle buses and in residence halls, Glaus said. The university Web site also will display information about the parking situation, Glaus said.

Glaus said letters will be sent to about 2,600 students who have resident or commuter permits to park in perimeter lots including the New Madrid Street lot. But she said many of those students don't regularly park in the New Madrid Street lot.

She estimated about 1,000 to 1,200 students will be affected by the temporarily loss of parking spaces.

But the campus has other lots where students can park. "Many of our commuter students are familiar with using the Show Me Center lot as overflow parking because we have displaced parking before for construction," Glaus said.

The temporary parking situation will affect the most students during the remainder of the spring semester, she said.

Parking isn't a problem during the summer when fewer students are taking classes on campus, school officials said.

Ultimately, officials said, students will benefit from the improvements on the 7.3-acre site north of New Madrid Street and west of the Student Recreation Center, officials aid.

The new parking deck, scheduled to be completed by mid-August when students move into the residence halls, will house 190 parking spaces.

Kiefner Brothers Inc. of Cape Girardeau is the general contractor for the latest parking improvement.

It's part of a $17 million project that will provide a total of 1,800 parking spaces, or about 1,200 more than are currently at the site, officials said. Federal funds will cover 80 percent of the cost. The university is using revenue from its parking and transit fund to pay the remainder of the cost.

The project is being done in phases as Congress appropriates funding, school officials said. The entire project could be completed within the next five years, officials said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123