Students and employees say they are concerned about the absence of emergency "blue light" phones in the Main Gate parking garage caused by a budget scheduling problem.

The Main Gate Garage, which has been open since April 1995, still lacks emergency phones, which provide a direct link to 911.

The three other campus garages - Second Street, Cherry Avenue and Park Avenue - contain a total of 46 emergency phones and have done so for two years, said Marlis Davis, director of Parking and Transportation Services.

"It's very important that when you park, you feel comfortable," she said.

However, Davis also said the installation of emergency phones was not included in the original Parking and Transportation budget for the construction of the Main Gate Garage at 888 N. Euclid Ave.

According to Davis, the reason the phones were left out of the original budget was because the garage opened in the middle of a fiscal year.

"Things were cut out (of the budget) to build and buy other things," she said.

The "other things" mentioned were Parking and Transportation services such as shuttle buses, she said.

When the Main Gate Garage was completed, a single emergency phone was installed on each level of the garage near the southwest staircase. However, those phones, which were installed over the summer, have never worked.

Davis said that all of the phones were from different manufacturers and were simply there to be tested. "We were testing each phone to make sure that anyone would be able to press the buttons. Each phone will be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) approved," she said.

While the phones were being tested, they were covered with signs which stated that the phones were out of order. These signs created a safety concern for a number of garage users.

A university employee who did not want to be identified said she uses the garage but was afraid to park there without emergency phones.

"I noticed them (the signs) a couple of weeks ago, and I am afraid," she said.

She and three other employees said the delay in installing the emergency phones poses a problem for people who park in the garage early in the morning and leave late at night.

Davis stated that one reason the test phones were never activated for public use was due to cost.

She said "it would be too expensive" to turn on the four test phones in the Main Gate Garage, remove them, and install the permanent phones.

About two weeks ago, the phones were removed, and the process to order permanent phones began. Funding for the phones was then added to the 1996-97 Parking and Transportation budget, and installation is scheduled for the beginning of the spring semester, Davis said.

She also said there are many additional safety measures taken in the Main Gate Garage and other university garages aside from the emergency phones, one of which is sufficient lighting.

"We are very concerned about lighting," she said. She believes this is important because lighting on the surrounding streets is not the best.

She said that she considers Main Gate the best-lit garage on campus.

Davis also stressed the importance of police surveillance and security in the four garages. She said there is a parking attendant at each location until 10 p.m., and that the University of Arizona Police Department regularly patrols all of the parking garages, including Main Gate.

"Enforcement officers and UAPD regularly patrol the (Main Gate) garage," Davis stated. "A UAPD officer has been assigned specifically to the Main Gate area."

A UAPD spokesman, however, said this is not the case. According to Lt. Brian Seastone, there is not a specific officer assigned to patrol the area. The Main Gate area is merely a part of the regular patrol route.

Seastone said there is no set time an officer will drive through a parking garage. He said officers patrol "as time permits."

To determine how often a garage is actually patrolled late at night, three Arizona Daily Wildcat staff members spent two hours on the fourth level of the Main Gate garage Nov. 3.

Between 10 p.m. and midnight, one UAPD officer drove through the garage in a patrol car. The officer stopped and asked a Daily Wildcat editor what he was doing in the garage at that time of night.

The officer came through the fourth level at 11:45 p.m., and was still on the roof of the garage at midnight when the observers left.

During the two-hour period, there were about 15 cars parked on the fourth level, and a total of 10 people walked through the area.

Vince Reyes, criminal justice sophomore, lives across North Euclid Avenue from the Main Gate Garage and said he does feel safe parking there.

"One time, we were putting new turn signal lights on our car when a cop came by after we were out there for five minutes," Reyes said. "He asked us what we were doing and he told us to have a good day."

But Megan Feltes, chemistry sophomore, said she does not feel as secure.

"My parents and my boyfriend hate the fact that I park there at night because of the safety situation," Feltes said. "We picked that garage because we thought it was safer and it obviously is not."

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