Earlier this month, the Carthage City Council rejected a proposal to increase the fine for parking longer than two hours on the Carthage Square from $1 to $15.
Council members also nixed a proposal to fine those drivers who moved to a new parking spot to avoid said two-hour fine.
Tuesday night was round two of potential downtown-parking changes as two additional parking-related proposals received first readings, despite objections from several Carthage residents.
The first issues will force Carthage residents living in apartments on the square to purchase $30/month parking permits to avoid being fined. The other would change the boundaries of the square’s two-hour parking from the streets more than one block off the square.
The two parking issues have now been advanced before the Council for a second reading in two weeks.
“Two things (that) haven’t been brought up on this — first of all, the high school is no longer down near the square so we don’t know what the impact those hundreds of cars will have on the city or parking on the square,” Welch said. Also, “this is just a temporary, 60-day test to see what happens. So at the end of 60 days, it reverts back.”
Fellow Council member Claire Newport said, “I tend to agree with the people that have spoken against it and I’m not in favor of changing the boundaries of parking.”
Kathy Gilpin, with Carthage Jewelry, said the $30/month placard is too high — “It’s a little too much to ask someone to park downtown.”
She urged instead for a small decal or even a sticker on the back window at a cost of, say, $20/year.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction with this, but I don’t see why this has to be so difficult.”
There are four free-parking lots located within a two-block radius of the square, but it’s difficult to ask residents, particularly senior couples, to walk that distance to and from their vehicles, the residents said.
Carthage resident Judy Goff cited a town in Kentucky that charged $20/year for a residential parking pass and $10/ year for guest passes.
Dr. Karen Colaw Herzog, president of the Carthage Historic Preservation Society, said any kind of fines or expensive placards for residents could potentially deter more residents to the downtown square.
“Anything that deters… has a negative effect on economic development,” she said. “Let’s make it a positive thing that people living on the square… and make preservation and economic development
“I think we should do everything we can to make it a good place for businesses to be,” she said.
In other news, Carthage council members passed a city budget of $10.4 million, with $7.8 in the general fund— including $5.2 for personnel and $1.7 for supplies/services. Budget figures compare with the current year’s adopted budget of $11.7 million and $8.7 million general fund expenditures.
