Colfax Clarifies: Snowmobiles can park behind the Blind Tiger
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — People will still be able to park their snowmobiles behind the Blind Tiger on Main Street in Colfax.
After the Colfax Messenger reported on the last village board meeting when the board approved the snowmobile routes resolution, is seemed like there needed to be some clarification, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, at the Colfax Village Board’s October 23 meeting.
Niggemann said she had called Mike Buchner, president of the Colfax SnoDrifters, to talk about the use of the alley behind the Blind Tiger to reach the Blind Tiger and Express Mart and to find out exactly what Buchner had been asking for.
Snowmobile riders coming into Colfax are supposed to park in the Synergy parking lot and then walk to the businesses on Main Street, such as A Little Slice of Italy and the Blind Tiger.
Snowmobilers going to the Blind Tiger were apparently not comfortable with leaving their sleds at the Synergy parking lot while going to the Blind Tiger, Buchner said at the October 9 meeting.
Instead, the snowmobiles were driving down the alley just east of Synergy and then parking behind the Blind Tiger. The problem is that the alley behind the Blind Tiger would then become crowded with snowmobiles, he had said.
The parking area behind the Blind Tiger has room for about a half a dozen vehicles that can pull straight in off the alley.
The village must “get the message out there” that the village is not disallowing parking at the Blind Tiger, Niggemann said at the October 23 meeting.
One village board member asked if the snowmobiles were parking in the Blind Tiger’s parking lot behind the establishment, to which Niggemann replied that the snowmobiles were parking in the Blind Tiger’s lot.
When the Colfax Messenger covered the October 9 meeting, the Messenger understood Buchner to mean that there were so many snowmobiles behind the Blind Tiger that they were parking in the area behind the Blind Tiger, and then when there was no more room on the Blind Tiger’s property, the snowmobiles were parking in the alley, making the alley congested.
Cars that park behind the Blind Tiger in the Blind Tiger’s parking area do not make the alley congested.
On the evening of October 27, the Blind Tiger’s parking area off the alley was full, but those vehicles were not impeding the alley.
It was still not clear from the discussion at the October 23 meeting whether the village board meant to allow snowmobiles to park in the alley behind the Blind Tiger or for snowmobiles to park only on Blind Tiger property.
Anne Jenson, village trustee, asked about the snowmobile route on Dunn Street.
The route on Dunn Street remains in the resolution, but the plan is for snowmobiles to go east and come out on the farm driveway, across from the fairgrounds, rather than use Railroad Avenue, Niggemann said,
Niggemann asked if the village board was “okay” with snowmobiles parking behind the Blind Tiger.
Village trustees replied, “yes.”
The only change to the previous resolution approved by the village board was from “Synergy Cooperative parking lot is designated parking if you plan to visit any businesses on Highway 40” to “Synergy Cooperative parking lot is designated parking if you plan to visit any other businesses on Highway 40/Main Street not listed above.”
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved the snowmobile route resolution.
