Ken Lundgren has left his mark on Bainbridge.
He’s left it all over the island in the form of multicolored chalk marks on a million tires. And if one of them was yours, there’s a good chance you drove away with a $50 souvenir, courtesy of the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
Or maybe not.
Lundgren, the BIPD’s Parking Enforcement Officer, doesn’t actually like to give tickets.
“I give out warning notices as much as I give out tickets,” he said.
“If a person returns to their vehicle before I’ve pressed the ‘print’ button on the handheld, they just get by with a warning. I allow a 15-minute grace period after the time that the vehicle is in violation of the timed parking; I try to go a reasonable length to give grace.”
Polite policing
Grace and manners are big for Lundgren. He’s been the island’s parking enforcer for 12 years, but spent many years as a pastor before finding his way to civil service. His demeanor has not changed much.
“I kind of transferred that to shepherding vehicles,” he said. “I’m easy to get along with. I listen to problems or explanations.”
Most people are pretty polite, he added. Mostly.
“There are a few who will wish me certain diseases or blow up in my presence or think this is going to ruin their insurance,” Lundgren said. “It’s not a moving violation, so it’s not on your record — unless you don’t pay it.”
In one particularly harrowing encounter, Lundgren recalled how he was very nearly run over by a man especially interested in avoiding a ticket.
“I had one guy down on Brien [Drive] come back to his vehicle and I was behind [it],” he said. “He’d parked overtime, so I was getting ready to issue a ticket, and he didn’t even acknowledge me. He just got in his car, started it and put it in reverse. So I had to scoot around from the back of the vehicle, because he moved the vehicle back to where I was.
“I knocked on his window and said, ‘Sir, don’t move until I finish the ticket for you.’
Even the unflappable Lundgren thought that one deserved more than a warning.
“If they come back with an attitude like that — they get a ticket,” he said.
Usually though, just a warning will suffice from this chalk artist. He doesn’t even ticket out-of-state vehicles either, saying it’s just not very welcoming.
A Poulsbo resident who enjoys taking the bus to work, Lundgren once had a full-time secondary parking enforcement officer to help out but lost her to the police academy. He’s been flying solo since 2013 — the secondary slot was a casualty of budget cuts — and trying to tackle what some have referred to as Bainbridge’s eternal struggle.
“There’s always a parking problem on Bainbridge Island,” Lundgren said. Though he’s responsible for the entire island, most of Lundgren’s problems are where you think: downtown.
“My vigilance downtown is constant,” he said. “They see me most there because that’s where all the timed parking is.
“There’s more traffic into the downtown area and there’s less parking spaces than what we had 10 years ago, so that combination, plus a number of other factors, makes these spaces vulnerable.”
On the job
Lundgren’s actual job description is pretty broad, but his two main directives are to handle all parking complaints and issues and to help reduce speeding.
To that end, he places two speed signs in known trouble areas around the island. During the school year, one is always in the school zone.
The signs generate reports of organized data — the number of vehicles, the time they passed by and their speed — so Lundgren can determine how serious the speeding trend there is. If it’s bad enough, he alerts his higher-ups to have officers patrol the area more regularly.
“Every area on the island that has a speed limit has a problem,” Lundgren said, adding that the signs have indeed helped. “It does produce an effect on speeding vehicles when they know what their speed is at the point that they’re speeding. This has been a big help.”
Such a big help, in fact, that the Bainbridge department is currently considering an additional budget item next year of two stationary speed signs that can be mounted on poles or on signs that are already in place.
Two main issues plague Lundgren’s workload today: obtaining better lighting for downtown crosswalks and making sure the legally-required amount of boat trailer parking is available downtown. (You may have noticed the blocked off spaces along Bjune Drive.)
“I inherited it,” Lundgren said. “We live with it as it is.”
The city, he explained, signed a contract with the state for some money to build the boat launch and dock. They required that Bainbridge provide 20 spaces on weekend days and holidays for boat trailers. Five of those spaces are down at the public dock, so that means 15 must be reserved on Bjune. Lately, it’s been far more visible than usual, as more street spaces must be reserved because temporary construction in the park has usurped the designated spaces there. It’s only temporary, but it’s caused quite a fuss.
“The greatest question that I have to answer is, ‘Why is all this parking not available for customers to shop at Winslow Way?’” Lundgren said.
Man about town
A seemingly unlikely choice of a pack of nearly 130 applicants when he first sought the job, Lundgren has since used his position to ensure fair, amiable treatment of all drivers and adequate turnover of patrons of downtown businesses on Bainbridge (“People lose track of time,” he said. “Especially when they’re having a good time downtown.”)
He has also become something of a local celebrity.
“I really enjoy the people and the interaction,” he said. “I have my fans down here, the senior citizens that go around in walkers or they’re walking their dog. After 11 years, you get to know them fairly well. I call them my fan club.”
Rain or shine, he’s a regular sight around town. Easy to spot, especially in the rain.
“The police department provides me with a nice big raincoat that’s yellow in color, so I look like a big ball of sun on a rainy day,” he said. “Even though it’s raining, or raining hard, I can still do my job because I keep dry inside and I’ve got a big safari hat, so I’m ready for the worst.”
When not walking the beat, Lundgren is an amateur photographer. His favorite subjects are his two young grandchildren. He’s also an avid reader and spends a great deal of time tending his garden.
“The way I see it, the kind of crime that we deal with is not major crime,” he said. “But we do have crime here. A lot of people may think we don’t need the police department, but without the police department there would be no deterrent.”
Lundgren can be contacted regarding parking and speeding concerns via email, klundgren@bainbridgewa.gov, and phone, 206-842-5211 or 206-780-4664. Though his exact schedule is never quite the same, he works at least two Saturdays a month and one Sunday.
Be sure to wave if you spot him.
