Students were advised in a campus-wide e-mail yesterday afternoon that the Pearce-Ford Tower lot be closed this weekend to be sealed and striped.

But plans have changed.

Now only about 30 parking spaces near the entrance on Normal Drive will be lost in PFT lot over the weekend due to the work.

Western officials had originally thought the entire lot needed to be sealed and striped to keep students from being confused about the spaces, said Gene Tice, vice president for Student Affairs and campus services. But after discussing the problem, they decided that repairing one section of the lot would suffice.

The spots in that section were blacked out two years ago when the lot was reconfigured, but the old stripping has began to show again, campus police Capt. Mike Wallace said.

“We’re trying to take the least disruptive route,” he said.

He said students have been ticketed for parking in yellow zones; the lines are confusing and the illegally parked cars are causing potential problems for EMS and shuttle services.

Contractors will begin sealing, painting new directional arrows and space lines in a section of the lot between the two entrances on Normal Drive starting at 3 p.m. on Friday, he said.

He said students may return to the area after 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Tice said there was miscommunication as to whether the entire lot would be renovated.

“It wasn’t something we needed to do right now,” he said.

Doing the entrance section first will be more convenient, Wallace said. He estimated sealing and striping the entire lot would cost as much as $5,000.

Just doing that will cost considerably less, he said. Sealing and striping the entire lot will happen at another time.

Owensboro freshman Courtney Carter said parking has been a problem in the lot since student returned.

She said she wasn’t going to move her car over the weekend – but that was before officials changed their mind about closing the entire lot.

“People need to learn how to park,” Carter said.

Reach Ashlee Clark and Shawntaye Hopkins at [email protected].