Bradford Y Has Parking Issues

The Bradford Family YMCA needs more parking spaces, and also wants some help from the city to keep people from parking in the "drop-off" area in front of their building.

Y officials joined Bradford City Council for a work session on the issues Tuesday night.

Jeff Alevy, CEO of the Olean-Bradford YMCA, said they do have a purchase agreement with Kessel Construction to buy the building currently occupied by the UPMC Hamot Medical Park. They would keep the building -- UPMC still has about 2 1/2 years left on its lease -- and use the space for their Child Care and Early Learning Center. He then said they were hoping to be able to move the fence in the Boylston Street parking lot by one row, and allow the Y to have those spaces.

Mayor Tom Riel said he is concerned about having another tax exempt property in the city. Also, he, City Clerk John Peterson and Deputy City Clerk Teri Cannon explained how the city-run parking lots are run. By the end of the work session, the city officials suggested the Y lease parking spaces in three nearby lots. (Kennedy, Pine and East Washington streets)

Another issue is people parking for hours in the spaces that are intended for people to drop others off at the Y. Alevy is hoping the city parking enforcement officer can help make sure people are not parking there. Riel suggested a 10-minute time limit for those spaces.

They also discussed the security cameras that will be installed downtown.

Alevy said, "it's appropriate and responsible to participate" in donating to the effort to pay for the cameras. "If another $500 or $1,000 will help, we would certainly would like to be a part of that."

"How many thousand?" Riel asked, smiling.

"One," Alevy said, smiling as well.

You can listen to the entire work session here.

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