North Idaho College has contracted a new parking security team to supplement the already existing parking and security team.
Diamond Parking was hired by the college to make parking enforcement more efficient.
Previously, there had been an overlap in security departments in order to handle parking in areas on campus frequently filled to maximum capacity.
“We [Campus Security and Campus Parking] are kind of housed in the same building. Campus Parking would go out there and write the citations, do the warnings and so would we,” Campus Security Officer Patrick Murray said.
Murray said their number one priority has been security, but it was difficult, and ultimately there just wasn’t enough of the staff to properly perform all of those responsibilities.
There are some days where we may not go out and be able to attend [to] parking issues, maybe for two, three, four, hours per day, because we’re doing some other things in the building,” Murray said. “Parking got neglected.”
According to Gary Stark, assistant director of facilities operation, another added benefit of using Diamond Parking is modernization of the ticketing process.
Before Diamond Parking was involved, all tickets were hand written and all the information entered in the computer manually.
According to Stark, it was a slow and tedious task, and with Diamond’s newer technology on the job, the process will no longer be “so lengthy and ancient.”
“They [Diamond] were the ones that were professionals at doing this, so it was pretty much a win-win to go with them.” Stark said.
Dustin Curtis, a representative from Diamond Parking, said that the arrangement the North Idaho College and Diamond have is called checking agreement.
Diamond Parking is responsible for providing a “parking facility checking service,” as well as aiding the existing parking staff on campus.
“It’s what we do.” Curtis said.
According to the agreement between NIC and Diamond Parking, the campus will pay $32,160 dollars for one year of service.
“After we [did] the whole process of getting the different quotes from different outfits, Diamond [had] the best bargain,” Stark said.
Stark researched the quotes for Vice President for Resource Management Ron Dorn, who ultimately presented them to the President’s Cabinet where Diamond Parking’s bid was finally approved.
While the price was a leading factor is the campus’s decision to choose Diamond, Both Dorn and Stark said observing the company, one of the largest and oldest privately owned parking companies in the world, operate under its contract with the city of Coeur d’Alene with courtesy and efficiency went a long way in impressing them.
Also counting in the company’s favor, NIC previously used Diamond to direct traffic during first two weeks of school last year.
In a strange move, however, NIC has decided to also start paying Diamond $200 a month to begin enforcing parking on Rosenberry Drive, property belonging to the city of Coeur d’Alene.
While all revenue from parking tickets issued on campus by the enforcement company will go to NIC, any money coming from tickets issued on Rosenberry Drive will go directly to the city.
“I thought about the fact that we’re not very consistent in our ticketing,” said Dorn, who stated he felt that while NIC may not receive any monetary benefit from the arrangement, it goes a long way toward teaching students to park properly at all times.
“It’ll make it better for those that are playing by the rules,” Dorn said.
