The streets of Frederick are getting new pavement and parking meters.
The time has come to deter people from taking advantage of some of the prime spaces, or at least keep them from staying all day, as Steve Johnson, of the parking department, explained it. The Board of Aldermen voted 4-0 to add meters on several blocks and put a two-hour time limit without meters on Winchester Street.
More than 100 new meters will be installed: some on East and West Church and All Saints streets, and on East Patrick Street.
Johnson estimated those meters would generate between $21,000 and $43,000 annually. The city already has the meters in storage.
Public works staff will install them, starting with Church Street, Johnson said.
No meters have been added since 1994, although a 2003 parking assessment recommended more, Johnson said. Alderwoman Carol Krimm asked whether it is time to assess parking needs again.
Johnson said he is having a meeting on the topic next week.
“We may need some kind of study,” he said.
Alderwoman Karen Young was absent from the meeting on a personal matter, Mayor Randy McClement said. She sent a letter in support of the board’s agenda item to amend this year’s budget to pay for $1 million worth of street repairs this year instead of waiting until fiscal 2013.
The rest of the board voted 4-0 in favor of the idea. Alderwoman Kelly Russell credited Krimm for the idea of using some of the 2012 fund balance now instead of later for the road projects.
“This was Alderman Krimm’s sort of out-of-the-box thinking,” Russell said.
Streets are as important as public safety, Krimm said.
“I consider this one of our core functions,” she said. “We have to maintain funding of our core functions.”
