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EBENSBURG -- Officials decided during Monday's Ebensburg Borough Council meeting to extend the implementation of the borough's new parking rates and fines to Jan. 1 after lengthy discussion about what effects changing the borough's parking ordinance would have on its residents and business owners.
Earlier this summer, the council voted to increase parking rates to $1 per hour and fines to $10 if paid within the first 48 hours of violation, with the cost bumping to $20 if the fine remains unpaid within a two-day timeframe.
The adjustments were originally expected to be implemented alongside a new contract with the ParkMobile parking application by next Tuesday, Sept. 1. However, the council decided to delay the implementation until 2027 because the changes require an update of several sections of the borough's parking ordinance, which is a two-month process at a minimum.
Some of the proposed ordinance changes include shifting enforcement hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., which the council's consensus seemed to agree with Monday.
Disagreement on passes
However, the council was divided when it came to the subject of monthly parking passes, particularly on how the new rates could affect business owners within the borough.
The council agreed to a monthly parking pass rate of $35 for residents and business owners, with a rate of $100 set for nonresidents, including employees of downtown businesses.
The passes are specifically for one of three parking lots -- the Penn Eben lot behind the Penn Eben Gazebo, the Municipal lot at the corner of West High Street and South Cherry Street or the Prave lot between the Cambria County Courthouse and Pour on Center -- and residents must live within "close proximity" of their specific lot in order to use the pass, according to what was proposed for discussion. A draft ordinance, which the council could vote on at next month's meeting, will have to define what close proximity is, council President Doug Tusing said.
Police Chief Joe Loughran said the borough's police department is "extremely lenient" with its enforcement of parking passes. For example, if someone has a pass for the Municipal lot but it's full, and that individual parks in the Penn Eben lot, they won't get a ticket as long as they have a valid parking pass, according to Loughran.
"If we see a permit and it's a valid permit, so be it," Loughran said at the meeting.
Councilwoman Sue Stevens suggested that business owners should be able to use their parking pass at meters in the event that their designated lot is fully occupied. While other council members didn't necessarily disagree, many argued it would "open a can of worms" for the borough in more ways than one.
A motion made by Stevens to create a separate parking pass for business owners to use at a meter or a lot within close proximity of their business failed by a 4-3 vote, with Tusing and council members Sue Kuhar, Jeff Ball and Bill Link opposed.
Tusing said the borough would prefer business owners to park in non-designated parking areas where there aren't any meters, such as Lloyd Street, so that the main street parking areas would be available to customers and other people coming into the borough to do business.
"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but parking is for visitors to town," Tusing said. "Those (metered) spaces are worth, at this point, $160 a month, and the more that we give out permits at $35 a month, that obviously affects the revenue of the borough."
Loughran also noted he believes it's a bad idea to allow business owners to park at metered spaces on the streets with their parking permit.
"If I was a business owner, I would be adamant that I didn't want somebody parking at a meter in front of my business," Loughran said, adding it's "inherently unfair" to ask the working enforcement officer to continually check on whether a lot is full at any given time before issuing a ticket on the street.
Tusing said the borough would also get complaints from business A that business B is parking in front of their store for prolonged periods of time. The more exceptions the borough makes, the harder it will become to administer parking fines and the less fair it will be when it comes to issuing tickets, he argued.
"Then you (will) just get a lot of complaints and people who want their tickets fixed and adjusted for various reasons," Tusing said. "I think the rule should be as clear as possible."
Kinks to work out
During public comment, after already approving the proposed ordinance changes, the council heard some feedback from Brittani Rankin, owner of Brittani's Fades & Blades, a hair salon and barber shop along South Center Street.
Rankin said she's accumulated numerous parking tickets recently and decided to purchase a parking pass for the Prave Lot.
Rankin said she prorated her pass for the rest of the year, but hasn't been able to use it often due to courthouse employees and construction vehicles occupying the lot throughout the day. She ends up paying the meter and having to close her business to refeed the meter or pay parking ticket fines on top of her monthly parking pass, she said.
If business owners are going to be required to pay for a $35 parking pass, they should have their own spots reserved within a lot, Rankin suggested. That's an idea Tusing said the council is taking into consideration.
"I can't afford $100 a month on parking," Rankin said, adding business owners are upset with the changes being made because they're not benefiting from them.
"The businesses in this town are bringing the people in this town. If there (were) no businesses or no business owners, you wouldn't be making money off the parking," Rankin said, adding she will take her business elsewhere if she can't get reasonable parking within the borough.
Rankin said business owners pay taxes, pay for membership to the Ebensburg Main Street Partnership -- the organization that sponsors many of the borough's community development events -- and they have to keep their streets clean, in addition to paying for parking.
"What are we getting back as business owners?" Rankin asked the council. "We have not gotten anything that I've known; I just keep paying and paying and paying, and I get nothing in return, and I've been here for eight years."
Tusing noted Rankin brought up valid points, and the council directed Community Development Director Danea Koss to solicit feedback from other Main Street Partnership members regarding their parking concerns. Rankin left the meeting after delivering her remarks.
The motion passed Monday allows for the possibility of implementing the ParkMobile contract in the borough's parking lots prior to Jan. 1, 2027 -- when the new rates are expected to go into effect at all designated parking spaces throughout the borough.
Tusing said he thinks the rates should start everywhere at the same time.
"You cannot be charging people 25 cents for an hour and 15 minutes (the current rate until the changes take effect) in one meter and right next to it charging $1 plus a fee through ParkMobile at the same time," Tusing said. "I think it all has to happen at once."
Matt Gribler, the borough's solicitor, suggested the draft ordinance language could state that if a parking lot is posted with ParkMobile signs, then the new rates would be applicable in those lots. However, the borough can't use ParkMobile on the streets with an old meter until they are retrofitted, he said.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.