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4-12-2007 That might put us in the minority, according to two businesspeople who presented more than 500 signatures on a petition opposing the idea to the village police committee Tuesday morning. Jeff Foster, of Legends Are Forever, and Robin Grey, of Essential Elements, spoke out against a proposal the committee has been working on to begin charging for parking in the lot. The plan calls for one or two $10,000 pay and display machines to be installed at the entrances. Customers purchase parking time from the machines using a credit card or coins and then display the ticket it prints on their dashboard. Cars parked longer than their allotted time are fined or towed as necessary. The pair worried that paid parking could drive away customers and make life difficult for employees and residents. ``I think this is a negative. I think we should leave it alone,'' Foster said. But Vinnie Russo, another Main St. businessman, disagreed. He said he applauded a long-overdue switch to paid parking which presented an excellent opportunity for the village to raise revenue from a source other than the taxpayers. And Russo should know better than anyone because he operates the only paid parking lot in the village. He estimates that paid parking on the downtown streets and the Doubleday Field Lot from April 1 through Oct.31 could generate as much as $600,000 annually. And, he told the committee, if only half that amount was returned to taxpayers through the budget, it could reduce the tax levy by 20 percent. We didn't count up the spaces and do the math, but Russo is right. This could be an excellent way for the village to generate revenue without dipping further into the taxpayers' pockets. And trustee Paul Kuhn, who chairs the police committee, is correct when he says the village is limited in the ways it can raise revenue other than through taxes. Parking is one of those ways. We are not entirely unsympathetic to employees of downtown businesses who have to search each day for a place to park. Before moving our office to Railroad Avenue, we also spent many summer days doing laps of the downtown area looking for a spot and moving every two hours in what was sometimes a futile attempt to avoid a parking ticket. In fact, Russo said the best thing that could happen for downtown businesses would be for employees to park elsewhere. It would allow the turnover of those spaces so they would be available for customers. Everyone will have to make some adjustments. Perhaps parking in trolley lots or the annual parking permit program currently under discussion is a way for employees to solve the problem. As Kuhn said, ``a lot of our infrastructure is really aging and we need additional revenue.'' We believe the paid parking proposal is worth testing in Doubleday Field. If it works, expand it to cover the business district. And, as Russo pointed out, new revenue and reduced tax bills might be enough to change residents' attitudes toward tourism and perhaps even make them want to see tourism grow. |
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