I’ve worked for the trial court for 26 years. We moved to a temporary courthouse on Monson Street in 2014 while the construction took place on Hope Street.
I never considered the Olive Street parking garage as the entire solution to our parking needs at the Franklin County Justice Center. I recall when we lost the library parking. Our court colleagues and court users expected to see the restoration of the Hope Street lot for parking. We were all suprised that there was this sudden shift to put housing there, in an area that already sees a fair amount of congestion.
We can see 300-plus users at the Justice Center on a busy day, empaneling juries, etc. The Court Service Center which provides free legal support to our residents was added to the Justice Center when we returned. Anyone who has been fortunate to receive legal support from their services will tell you that it’s a busy place.
It’s unheard of to create a major court facility that serves an entire county without having its own dedicated parking spaces to serve the elderly and disable population that need to come here, for the court, for probate, for deeds. The Hope Street parking lot was a convenient area on the same level as the court building to allow people using walkers and wheelchairs to easily get into our building.
We had no say in its closing, and no discussion about how we would deal with the loss of public convenience and access to this building as a result of losing that lot. Before the temporary fire station was even dismantled, those concrete blocks were in place.
It’s been a loss and a hardship for all the workers in this building who have to search for parking every workday, or park on residential side street just to get to their office, plus all the visitors coming here for the first time who have no idea where the best parking is for handicapped people or disabled.
A regional public facility needs better parking capacity. The parking garage was never meant to the be the catch all for everyone who needed to get into this facility.
I hope the Greenfield voters will understand the need to give us some access to an on level parking area for the public. Greenfield has more than 14,000 acres, we would like to see just one acre return to becoming an active parking lot again to help alleviate our parking problems. Please vote “Yes” on Question 1.
Mike Kelly is a court officer at the Franklin County Justice Center and lives in Turners Falls.