A little background for this segment... In 1958 a concrete parking deck was constructed over the canal. It completely obscured the canal from the firehouse to about halfway to the College Avenue bridge. I remember a parking lot arm that raised either to let cars in or out, but I don't remember which. I also don't know if they charged to park there (I wasn't born until 1960!) In 1999 it was torn down and the canal was restored to its original glory. Over the years several have sent in photos. If any readers have photos of the parking deck, please let me know. It is important to preserve as much Broad Ripple history as possible.

"Were you around for the parking deck that was over the canal?" I asked Sarah Holsapple, Media Relations for Citizens.

"No," she answered, "what year was that? No, I wasn't here."

"It came down in 1999," I replied. "This is them taking the canal deck down," as I pointed at a picture I brought.

"The deck is in here too," said Ed Malone, Director of Water Production for Citizens, pointing at another picture I brought.

"Do you remember the parking deck?" I asked Ed.

"Yes, I remember the parking deck," he answered.

I showed several pictures. "This is them taking it down in 99. I have an aerial picture of it too, you can see the cars on the canal here. Here is one of them building it."

Ed said, "Actually we liked the parking deck being there. The reason being is we didn't get the weed growth under the parking deck."

"No sunlight!" added Edwin Morris, Operations and Maintenance Supervisor for Citizens.

"It was pretty long," I explained while pointing to the aerial photo, " it went from here (Guilford) all the way down to here (half way to College) along the canal."

Sarah exclaimed, " Wow! Interesting. So, there was a lot more parking in Broad Ripple!"

Ed answered, "Oh yeah, there was a lot more parking there."

"Do you know who took the deck down?" I asked. "Who was responsible? Was it the city. . . or DPW? Do you remember anything about that?"

Ed answered, "I don't remember how that decision was made. I know we were involved in the decision, but I was not party to that."

Sarah added, "And when you say we, that is way before Citizens owned the water utility starting in 2011."

"That's correct," said Ed.

"At the time, we heard it was too expensive to fix because it was crumbling," I added.

Ed said, "It was [crumbling]. It wasn't a utility structure (meaning belonging to a public utility), it was a city parking structure."

I remember the concrete deck was in such bad shape that you could see the canal through large holes. I think sections were roped off for safety. I remember a parking study being performed showing that there was a surplus of available parking spots in the Village and that the removal of the parking deck would not be injurious to local businesses. I believe that study counted the spots available in every parking lot and along every street in Broad Ripple. They compared that to the estimated number of visitors. Parking in Broad Ripple has long been a topic of conversation!

End of Part Eleven