The city has largely taken over the Altoona Parking Authority’s maintenance responsibilities for the parking garage and the authority’s five surface lots, according to authority Chairwoman Sherri McGregor.

The city recently added those lots and the garage to its long term capital maintenance plan, McGregor said Tuesday after an authority meeting.

The new policy will relieve the authority of the necessity of periodically requesting capital funds from the city and/or taking out loans to cover projects like garage repairs — which cuts into authority revenues earned through operations, according to McGregor.

“The city has and always will continue to help the Parking Authority keep up with maintenance projects when appropriate, in an effort to keep parking rates attractive for businesses in our downtown,” wrote Interim City Manager Nate Kissell in a message forwarded by McGregor.

Some of the money the city has been using in its current round of projects benefiting the authority were recovery funds allocated by the federal government to enable the city to recoup economic development losses due to COVID-19, Kissell added.

One advantage of the city taking maintenance responsibility for authority infrastructure will be better prices from contractors, due to economy of scale — as such work will be folded into contracts that includes other city projects, according to McGregor.

McGregor credited City Manager Omar Strohm, who retired at the beginning of the year, for helping to introduce the new policy, based on his observations of the authority’s workings as a board member.

Authority employees have long done some work on behalf of the city in the downtown, including lawn work, maintenance of the 13th Street crossover and grass cutting around lots, McGregor said.

The city is ultimately responsible for authority facilities anyway, McGregor said. “We’re all in this together,” she said.

The city taking maintenance responsibility aligns with the city, rather than the authority, receiving revenues for 27 parking spaces in the authority lot behind the Curry Innovation Center, as part of a deal by which the city is acquiring a Curry lot near the police station, so Altoona Police Department employees can use that convenient facility, according to McGregor.