Port beer garden parking a ‘dangerous situation’

Port Washington’s beer garden series has become so popular that on some Saturdays parking in Upper Lake Park has become an issue, but the city’s Traffic Safety Committee is working with the Friends of Port Washington Parks and Recreation to find a solution.

New signs, striping in the Upper lake Park parking lots and a shuttle bus that would bring people from lots elsewhere in the city are among the solutions being studied.

Police Chief Kevin Hingiss, a member of the committee, said it’s dangerous when people park on the road through the park or on the grass.

“It just creates a dangerous situation. It makes it hard to see,” Hingiss said, especially when young children cross the road on their way to Possibility Playground.

No parking is allowed along the street through the park, he said, and police officers take heat when they ticket violators.

“People think we’re just being heavy-handed,” Hingiss said. “We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

“And if something happens, it’s going to be ‘Why didn’t you do something?’”

Hingiss suggested that striping the parking lots in the park would help, noting that at times cars are parked in a haphazard fashion.

“It would help if it were striped so it looks more like a parking lot,” he said.

For the most part, Hingiss said, there is adequate parking for the beer gardens.

“But if it’s a nice day and other groups are up there using the park, it gets tough,” he said.

Wendy Braam, who represented the Friends of Parks and Recreation, which sponsors the beer gardens, said the group is working with Johnson Bus to organize a shuttle bus to help alleviate the parking problem, but said striping the lots and installing signs showing people where to park might help.

“I don’t know what else we can do,” she said. “We want to find a solution. We want people to be safe.”

Braam said the Friends group is considering running a small shuttle bus from the park-and-ride lot on the north side of the city, although it’s open to other locations.

“It’s reasonable for us to do,” she said, although the cost would eat into the profits distributed to the nonprofit groups that host the event each weekend.

The group would seek sponsors to help cover the cost of the bus, she added.

Among the alternate locations suggested by the committee included the Ozaukee County Administration Center parking lot on West Main Street.

There would likely be a drop-off site for the bus at the beer garden, something the committee agreed should be designated with temporary signs this year.

New signs that would direct people to other parking lots and no-parking signs along the road through the park were also considered by the committee.

Committee members agreed they need to check on the city ordinances to make sure that they reflect the no-parking on the grass or roadway policy.

They also agreed that the street department should stripe the parking lots in the park, especially the lot nearest the beer garden and the one just north of the beer garden.