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Washington mulling an increase of parking meter rates
sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com
Drivers will need to carry more spare quarters if they want to park their vehicles along a Washington street and stay in the city awhile.
City Council plans to schedule a special meeting within two weeks to act on possibly doubling the parking meter rate, which now is set at 25 cents for a half-hour in most spots. The price to park in a city lot will not change.
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Spossey said he expects there to be complaints about the increase to 25 cents for 15 or 20 minutes to park at a metered spot.
"Somewhere along the line, it helps the city of Washington from outside sources," he said.
The city earned about $8,000 over the past six months from the parking meters.
Spossey said the municipality has more pressing issues than parking rates to contend with, as it faces a financial crisis.
He said he may recommend that council seek financially distressed status under Act 47, the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, after he determines the extent of the city's deficit by comparing revenues and expenses through June 30.
Municipalities are declared financially distressed under the law and a step away from bankruptcy, Spossey said. The move would allow the state to assist Washington in restructuring its debt and make recommendations for eliminating wasteful spending.
"We're very close to bringing in an outside panel," he said. "They may see things we don't see."
Raise Rates ? : 7/10/2009
Mr.Spossey, you said we were in a financial crises.......So why raise the rates on metered parking ? Don't you think that the citizans are having financial problems too ! The citizans don't deserve this burden, they don't need to have things going up, when the economy is going down !!! Isn't it strange how products went up during the gas crises, but they didn't go down when the gas went down !!!!
Yeah this will bring in soooo much extra money : 7/10/2009
Why don't they try dumping more money into downtown washington? The first round of money did sooo much to attract businesses and shoppers.
parking meter rates : 7/10/2009
increase parking meter rates ?? i thought we wanted to find reasons to bring people into the city..not drive them away...way to go city council...
parking meter fee increase : 7/10/2009
When people get fed up paying more meter fees they will do their shopping elsewhere.
Parking meter increase : 7/11/2009
Here we go again more nickle and dime the people to death.. How much does it cost to park in the mall lots?Keep up the good work and make Washington a Ghost town.
