Blowing Rock council approves hiring parking ambassadors, sets June public hearing on enforcement changes

The Blowing Rock Town Council on Tuesday authorized hiring two part‑time parking ambassadors and agreed to hold a public hearing June 10 on proposed changes to the townparking ordinance and on contracting with Passport Parking, a private vendor staff proposed to handle citation processing and electronic payments.

The council voted to hire the part‑time ambassadors after Chief Nathan Kirk of the Blowing Rock Police Department described recommendations from a consultant and staff for year‑round enforcement, updated signage and a non‑sworn enforcement model led by Cassandra Reed, the police departmenttelecommunicator supervisor. "She presented a couple of different things, just some things to help with parking," Kirk said, summarizing the consultantrecommendations. "She recommended removing the three‑hour parking and putting it down to two hours on Main Street and Sunset Drive," he added.

The nut of the proposal is to move enforcement out of the police department and into dedicated parking staff who would also act as ambassadors to visitors. Passport Parking would provide ticket printing, QR codes and online payment processing; staff reported a reduced initial monthly software fee of $1,000 and…