BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON -- Kenton County's $18 million parking garage is expected to open to the public Sept. 15, but buses will start using it a month earlier. Beginning Aug. 15, the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) will sell tickets from an office in the garage, and buses will run through its first level.
"This will help keep the buses from being stacked up on the streets," said Kenton County Administrator Ralph Bailey. Up to eight buses will be picking up passengers or dropping them off inside the garage. TANK "will have an office there where they can sell the tickets, and changers will be built into the building," he said.
Mr. Bailey said the 1,590-space garage on Scott Street will offer monthly, daily and park-and-ride rates. The latter rate will allow users to park their cars in the garage and ride the bus to Cincinnati.
Up to 282 spaces are expected to be used for county and state officials who work in the courthouse. No other spaces have been allotted. "We don't feel that we need to make allocations at this point," Mr. Bailey said. "We feel with the number of spaces we have, that availability shouldn't be a problem."
The Kenton County Courthouse is under construction at Third Street and Madison Avenue, next to the garage, and is to open in May 1999. The garage also will serve the Northern Kentucky convention center opening this fall.
By the end of the month, Kenton County officials expect to award bids for a security system that will include cameras, television monitors and an intercom system that will allow people in the garage's 11 levels to talk to a guard.
Kenton County Deputy Judge-executive George Neack said the cameras and monitors that county officials hope to purchase would display images in color, to allow better identification of the garages' occupants in case of trouble.
"You get more clarity, and you also have the ability to say, "It's a guy in a red shirt,' instead of a guy in a purple shirt," Mr. Neack said. "On a black-and-white monitor, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."
Cameras also could be turned and could zoom in on a particular location, he said.
"I think it'll be a first in this area for that level of security," Mr. Neack said.
