ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis City Treasurer’s Office answers criticism that a city-run parking garage in the Central West End is not safe.

A group of women who work nearby and use the treasurer’s office-run Euclid Avenue Garage spoke with FOX 2. The women say they haven’t seen security guards at the garage. It makes Sarah Dunn feel unsafe.

“Nope, it’s pretty much nonexistent. So, there have been sightings of someone who sits in a truck that sits out here, windows up, next to these dumpsters,” she said. “Not aware of anything that’s going on inside (the garage). And once or twice, I’ve heard of sightings of someone sitting in the security room.”

Barb Gotto feels the same way.

“It’s not safe. It’s not safe. It’s terrible that we have to pay that much for security, and we’re not getting it,” she said.

St. Louis Treasurer Adam Layne insists the city does have security at the garage.

“We do have security at our Euclid garage,” he said. “We have roving security; so between Euclid and our garage down the road, we have security that goes there, especially during the high traffic areas.

“So, we have been spending money on security, just in different ways. So we have full-time security guards, we have overnight security guards, we spend money on security at all of our events, keeping people safe when they are attending events, and we also spend money on upgrades, but from our last assessment, we said we can actually do more, so we’re going to do more.”

Layne says his office is spending another $900,000 to enhance security. They’re hiring more guards for the eight city-owned garages and will staff guards longer at the facilities, including the Euclid garage. The city will also enhance security cameras and increase the use of roving security.

Layne vows it will make a difference.

“So, we don’t have security there 24 hours at every single garage that we have, but we want to make sure that we cover those high-traffic areas where there are likely more incidents, but with this additional $900,000, we will have security there even more,” he said.

FOX 2 went to check on a parking garage owned by St. Louis County to see what they were doing by way of security. A spokesman for the county’s Transportation and Public Works sent FOX 2 the following statement late Tuesday:

St. Louis County owns two parking garages; both are located in Clayton – the court’s garage located beneath the County Courthouse and the Shaw Park Drive garage at Shaw and Meramec.

Our Parking Garage Operations group manages the parking assignments and cleanliness of both facilities.

The Department of Public Works takes care of facility maintenance for both garages, while the county’s Department of Parks maintains the exterior of both garages (including snow removal).

There are agreements between the County, Metro, and the City of Clayton to share use and maintenance costs for the Shaw Park Drive garage. Metro leases the bus station side of the Shaw Park Drive Garage from St. Louis County.

We do not staff security personnel at the Shaw Park Drive Garage. The City of Clayton has jurisdiction over that facility.

David G. Wrone, Public Information Manager, St. Louis County’s Departments of Transportation and Public Works