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Plans for new parking meters and a wayfinding system for downtown Youngstown are on hold
YOUNGSTOWN
Plans to install meters at every downtown parking spot and to implement a wayfinding system to help people better navigate downtown are both on hold for the same reason: The city doesn’t have the money.
Both proposals are being pushed back at least until next year as the city determines how to fund them, Mayor John A. McNally said.
But 20 parking meters allowing motorists to pay with debit and credit cards – in addition to coins – will be installed along Lincoln Avenue as part of an improvement project to that street at Youngstown State University, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department, and Mark D’Apolito, assistant law director. They are the first such meters in Youngstown.
“Lincoln Avenue is a unique opportunity for us to see if people will like them,” D’Apolito said. “This will be a pilot program.”
The city has $1.2 million in federal funding to pay for the Lincoln Avenue project that is estimated to cost $1.6 million and improves that road between Wick Avenue and Hazel Street. The work includes paving, sewer improvements, marked crosswalks and small pedestrian islands at intersections, Shasho said.
The project is to start in July with the completion expected before YSU’s fall semester begins Aug. 24, Shasho said.
“If these meters work out, they could be used downtown,” Shasho said.
A coin-only meter costs about $495 each while the debit and credit-card meters cost about $695, D’Apolito said. Those new meters have other costs, including an $80 one-year warranty fee for each meter and a charge of up 15 cents each time someone uses the meters, he said.
The cost to park in the city’s downtown at most spots with working meters – some are broken – range from 50 cents to $1 an hour. There also are downtown locations without meters.
The administration suggested in November that free downtown parking be eliminated, and that the cost of meters range from $1 to $2 an hour. But the plan hasn’t gone anywhere.
City “council wants to keep the rates low so it’s not a money-making proposition,” D’Apolito said. “But we don’t want to lose money, so we have to evaluate if it’s worth it to eventually have these types of meters downtown.”
McNally said: “This would require changing meters and we don’t have the money for that. ”
Also, the city plans during the summer of 2017 to pave large sections of West Federal, West Commerce and West Front streets, some of downtown’s most-traveled roads. That may be a better time to install parking meters, particularly because the city will have a year of experience with them on Lincoln Avenue, McNally said.
Wayfinding signs, primarily for downtown, have been discussed for almost two years. The city paid $26,000 in January 2015 to Studio Graphique of Cleveland for a wayfinding project plan that was completed about four months later.
City officials were looking for a proposal that would cost about $150,000 to $200,000. Studio Graphique’s proposal was for $282,500 for signs and $39,000 for additional work. McNally said he nixed an $85,500 expense to install 114 banners in the city.
Other expenses are for directory kiosks, and signs for parking and points of interest.
“Wayfinding is a matter of funding and we won’t have that funding this year,” McNally said. “We want to revisit it next year. It’s very important for downtown, but we’re going to do it in a very cost-efficient manner. I’m not in a panic to get this done. Everyone is going to have to be patient.”