Mayor & council voted to have the two (2) municipal parking lots on Chestnut Street have free parking for the rest of 2015. The lots affected would be Municipal Parking Lot #1, which is located on Chestnut street between Williams Street and Charles Street and Municipal Parking Lot #2 which is in Michael Mauri Park – located at the intersection of Chestnut Street and East Grant Avenue.
During a capital budget workshop last month, the Roselle Park Police Department (RPPD) – the authority responsible for parking enforcement – introduced a $76,000 capital line item to replace the meters to updated one since the old ones were not able to be repaired. Added to that was to be a projected $10,000 in annual transaction fees due to new metering machines only accepting credit cards, according to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ken Blum.
In their capital budget presentation, Police Chief Paul Morrison stated that the recommendation should be to provide free parking for the rest of the year as a cost savings and incentive for downtown shopping.
A review by the CFO, who stated that both municipal meters were not working for the majority of 2014, showed a loss of revenue of about $5,000. In doing the calculations, council agreed that the investment outweighed the lost revenue. The free parking is on a trial basis for the remainder of the year and will be reviewed in 2016.
Resolution 121-15 also waived the parking fees, but not the reserved parking spaces, for World of Liquors and Valley National Bank.
Issues with long-term parking (overnight, etc.) were to be addressed by existing municipal parking laws to prevent people abandoning or long-term parking their vehicles, according to the RPPD.