OPINION: High school needs to pay for parking problem it caused

Flathead High School has a parking problem. I wonder how long the leaders of Flathead High School knew that?

Why have they not prepared the campus for more parking? More students drive to school each year, and for how many years have the people around the school not been able to park in front of their own homes?

I ask your readers: How long would you allow this outrageous problem to continue? Why would the powers that be want the homeowners “to pay to park” in front of their own homes? This should not be the taxpaying homeowners’ problem.

I think the school should cover all costs, including street signs, until the school provides proper parking for their teachers and students — not in front of residents’ houses.

When I was on the City Council, a resident just east of Flathead High School called me and asked if I knew the school was going to close the alley — “the one just east of FHS” — two time a day to load and unload students.

The resident not being able to park in front of her house used to come and go from the alley. She would have no way to get home or leave during that time. We got that stopped. But the school did remove several parking places on the east side of school and planted grass, knowing that they just put 17 more cars on the street.

The solution is simple — the party that caused the problem must fix it. The school should pay for signs and permits for homeowners until they can provide their own parking on campus, not in front of someone’s home. —Hank Olson, Kalispell