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Paid Permit Parking Coming To Put-in-Bay?
The Village of Put-in-Bay, like other government entities and businesses, has been hit with extraordinary rising costs, yet nowhere near the revenue to keep pace. For the last couple of years, there have been many discussions about how to raise the additional revenue to fund the police department, offer competitive wages to its workers, and combat the decreasing reserves in the general fund.
The Village raised water and sewer rates in 2022 to keep the Utility Dept. in the black, but decreases in the public dock revenue due in part to the price of gas, and only modest increases or stable revenue from other sources just haven’t been enough.
One proposal on the table is to institute paid parking downtown on the streets and in the parking lot behind the Town Hall. This could be accomplished with meters or computer app parking programs, but these are costly.
One of the proposals in front of the Village Council is to have paid permit parking on the streets and public parking lots in the Village. Privately owned parking areas could contract with Village to require the same permit for use within their parking areas. Parking permit stickers would be sold on an annual or daily basis and displayed on the vehicle. There would be signs along the streets and in any parking lots that say “Permit Parking Only.”
The proposed permanent annual parking permit sticker would cost $250 for commercial operators such as golf cart companies. An annual parking permit sticker would cost $100 for all Village residents for their personal-use vehicles. For non-Village island residents, the annual parking permit sticker would cost $200 for each personal-use vehicle. Residential verification would be required. Daily parking permits would cost $10 per day.
The parking permit stickers could be sold by the Village and designated merchants.
The Village would enforce this ordinance by issuing parking tickets to any vehicle that does not display a parking permit sticker in a required parking location. The Village could also disable the vehicle using a locking device and/or the vehicle may be towed. The Village shall use both Village employees and private contractors for enforcement.
At this point, this is only a proposal, but some on Council are pushing for a final paid permit parking ordinance in time for this coming season.
The previous piece is published in this month’s Put-in-Bay Gazette. The Gazette has been producing incredible independent Put-in-Bay island news for over 40 years. If you have any interest at all in what is happening on South Bass Island, we urge you strongly to subscribe to the Put-in-Bay Gazette. One-year online subscriptions are only $15, and print subscriptions are available as well. To subscribe please click here.
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