By Cecilia Nasmith
Park free in downtown Cobourg for at least the rest of the year, following the motion by Councillor Adam Bureau at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting of council.
The motion was put forward as an amendment to the original motion recommended by director of public works Laurie Wills to reinstitute paid parking as of Nov. 16.
The report Wills presented gave some history behind the closure, which occurred at a time when people were urged to stay home and there was little demand for parking.
“It also reduced the need for parking meter repair, coin collection and public use of the parking meters at a time when hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies were scarce or unavailable,” Wills noted.
She also supplied some figures to show the loss of revenue. While they had expected to take in $70,000 in parking-pass sales in 2020, they have only realized $8,362.68 to date. Downtown meter revenue to date has produced $35,123.30, though they had expected to take in $187,500 over the course of the year.
Only 1,278 parking tickets have been issued issued to date in 2020, compared to 4,412 issued in 2019. And the $100,000 in revenue they had expected to realize from tickets in 2020 is only $36,969.45 to date.
The return of paid parking could also address the concern of municipal enforcement officers about spaces that are continually tied up long-term by those who live and work downtown.
Bureau's amended motion calls for the reinstatement of paid parking to be the subject of a staff report presented at council's first committee-of-the-whole meeting of 2021, which would be on Jan. 4.
In a Christmas season that ends a most uncertain year, the councillor said, small businesses need our support.
“I think this is one way we can help them even more – free parking unti the committee-of-the-whole meeting in January 2021.”
Bureau referred to the safety of town employees, but Wills said time and experience have brought improvements. For example, parking passes are easily available on-line that can be printed off at home (or at the Cobourg Public Library). They can also be purchased by phone and updated on municipal computers that list the appropriate license plate numbers so – in the interim until the pass arrives by mail - bylaw enforcement officers will know that a parking pass has been purchased for that car.
As for those officers, she added, “This time we are much more prepared than we were before. We didn't have the proper PPE (personal protective equipment) and we didn't have enough bylaw resources at the time. And there was an awful lot of pressure on bylaw and police to deal with social distancing and gatherings throughout the summer months.
“I think we are prepared to be able to conduct regular collection of coins and utilize pay-and-display machines safely.”
Municipal clerk Brent Larmer added some details about how the coins emptied out of the meters are handled – it is totally contact-free, he said. The meter is opened and the coins drop directly into a receptacle on a trolley that is wheeled to a vault, where they are stored at least 40 hours before being collected and counted.
“Those precautions work pretty well,” Larmer said.
Asked for an estimate of lost revenues associated with extending unpaid parking beyond the Nov. 16 date she had envisioned, Wills calculated it at $40,000 to $50,000.
