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As part of the holiday parking in the city's downtown, Williamsport Parking Authority is offering free on-street and on-lot parking after 3 p.m. starting Black Friday through Christmas, according to Dr. Anthony J. Cipolla, authority chairman.
The traditional gift for parkers is meant to entice drivers downtown to shop and do their business, he said.
The authority staff are going to remove the metal poles without the new meters on them as quickly as possible, said David Kish, authority operations manager.
The meter-less poles continue to cause confusion to drivers, some of whom have received parking tickets because they believed the spaces were open and free to use without paying, Kish said.
Another issue for some drivers has been understanding the new meters. There are directions on each meter face, however, there is a letter A on the left and B on the right with arrows pointing to which meter is getting monitored based on the pay inserted.
The letters are on the far sides of each meter and not visible for some individuals, who received tickets and came into the authority office to complain, Kish said.
Kish said the system is going to be going online and monitored from the authority headquarters, and that should help resolve some of the glitches the authority and customers have been experiencing since late summer when the meters were put in.
The authority is preparing to talk budget at its next meeting in December. Preliminary numbers indicate there will be no need for increasing parking rates for 2020, said William E. Nichols Jr., city finance director and general manager of River Valley Transit, which provides contracted financial management service for the authority.
The authority budget is typically about $1 million, with some investments planned through a financial loan package to cover capital improvement costs, Nichols said. The authority usually breaks even in terms of revenue and expenses in its annual budget.
In some years, the snow removal costs are higher than others. Wolyniec was hired as the snow removal contractor. The company charges $96 per hour, according to Todd Wright, of the authority.
The vote to approve Wolyniec was done by board members Rose Choate, Marc Schefsky and Cipolla.
For those planning to connect to downtown or drive using a portion of Third Street, which has been closed for construction on the East Third Street Gateway project, the street will reopen starting Tuesday.
All lanes of traffic will be reopened between Academy and Basin street, according to Andrew Kremser, a spokesman for RVT.