I was among those who were privileged to ride aboard the two free Veterans Eagle Watch Cruises on Nov. 29 and view our nation's greatest symbol: The bald eagle. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to do this, and commend Lake Coeur d'Alene Cruises, BLM and IDFG for this generous opportunity. It was a 5-star event.

However, the kiosk in the adjacent McEuen parking lot was anything but 5 Star. It was rudimentary at best, and caused those in line to wonder if they would get their ticket before the boat left the dock.

A sign at the lot entrance states that all parking must be paid in advance. So after parking my car, I walked to the kiosk nearest The Resort and found about 10 people standing in line waiting to get a ticket. The man at the kiosk was using a credit card, and it took at least four minutes after my arrival for the machine to produce one. The lady behind him used cash, and word quickly spread that cash was faster. I only had a $10 bill, so I decided to use that, but the machine did not give change. So the lady in front of me gave me a dollar bill, and the man behind me gave me two dollars, which was very kind of them. I followed the prompts on the machine and got three hours of parking for $3, with an expiration time of 3:45 p.m. Since I knew that the first two hours were free, I assumed that I would get a $2 refund when I left the parking lot.

Not so. There is no kiosk and no attendant at the parking lot exit, so it was not possible to get a refund when I left about 3:15 p.m. It's true that $2 is not a lot of money, but when you multiply this by the number of people using this lot, it becomes obvious that it's a real money maker. It is also dishonest.

This kiosk (and others like it in the McEuen parking lot) need to be modified so they:

1. Allow the buyer to get two hours of free parking and only pay for what they need beyond that;

2. Produce tickets with an expiration time that reflects the two free hours plus whatever the customer pays for;

3. Process credit card payments in a very expedient manner;

4. Produce change for those who use cash.

The kiosk system in this parking lot projects a terrible image of Coeur d'Alene and McEuen Field, and does The Resort no favors either. For since it is immediately adjacent to The Resort, those who don't notice it's a city parking lot will automatically assume that it belongs to The Resort, which will do nothing positive for its 5-star rating.

Marilyn Hunt, CDR, USN (Ret.), is a resident of Post Falls.