Last fall, we were told that problems surrounding parking lot lines on campus were going to be fixed sometime this spring. Since spring is here, we followed up this past week with Dennis Sander, dean of finance and operations, and Roger Scheib, director of buildings grounds and security, to ask about plans and to get some insight into the situation. The problems started last summer after the main campus parking lots were sealed. An employee for SCCC/ATS was hired to do the painting of parking lines and use the college’s equipment. According to Sander, the employee got offset with the markings and some parking spaces ended up being wider and others smaller. They were just not consistent. “ We stopped him in the middle of the painting, it was apparent that we had an issue,” Sander said. Right before school began new gravel was put down. The gravel was still fresh when school started, so it made it almost impossible to re-paint the lines because of the cars in the parking lots, according to Sander. The whole situation caused a lot of frustration, not only to students but to the staff in charge as well. Complaints came from drivers because cars were getting door-dinged, and there was no space to get out of cars in some narrow spaces. Other lines offered general confusion as to parking spaces. Sander and Scheib are both aware of the frustration that it has caused and want to clear some waters and give an explanation. Winter came with its snowstorms throughout the last couple of months, but the full intent to get the parking lots painted that winter break were still there. For break, the plan was to block the old paint and cover it with new paint. But then the weather did not permit for this to take place. “You can’t paint in cold temperatures because the paint is water-based. The surface of temperature of the asphalt has to be warm,” said Scheib. This winter, with the snowstorms, prevented any progress with the new painting, he said. Inconveniences proceeded to follow into spring semester and the next goal was spring break. The temperature was warm enough where the paint could’ve been done, but, according to Scheib, just to measure and mark the parking lot takes a total of two days and then another two days to paint. “We would’ve needed the whole break to get it done. And Mother Nature came and gave us another one. She has something out for us this year,” Sander said. So the parking lots were not painted during spring break. From here on out until summer, Scheib plans on sectioning off areas of the parking lot, on both sides, with less traffic, in order to start striping. The section that will probably not get started before summer will be at the Student Living Center. Maybe a third time will be a charm. Both Scheib and Sander anticipate the parking lot to be painted and done before the next fiscal year. In regard to costs, $400 was paid for labor at the beginning and there will be no additional costs because both Scheib and Sander plan to stripe the parking lot with their staff. “We probably spent $300 on paint, we used 15 gallons of paint and $100 for 5 gallons,” Scheib said. According to Sander, it would’ve been inconvenient to hire a company to stripe the parking lots because a company will come in and say that they will need the parking lots cleared, and right now, with students and faculty needing to park outside, it wouldn’t have worked out. “We need the parking lot for everyone.” Hopefully warmer weather and fewer cars in the parking lots will pave the way for this problem to be resolved.