BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — The village board held a public hearing on amendments to its parking code that would establish free two-hour parking spaces in place of paid metered spots and agreed to spend $9,960 for a new, digital parking enforcement software and hardware system.

A special meeting of the board is planned for May 28 to approve the amendments, which will take effect June 1. The changes will effectively eliminate all of the paid metered parking in the villlage, replacing it with free, two-hour parking in most of those spots. Those parking areas will be monitored and enforced by village police if need be for compliance with the new two-hour system.

Public comment

No comments voiced during the May 13 public hearing on amendments to the village code that would dissolve the village’s paid, metered spaces in favor of a free, two-hour parking system in the business district around Market Street.

However, Erik Backus, Clarkson University civil engineering professor, did raise one caveat to the village’s plan during the regular public comment section of the village’s May 13 meeting that followed the hearing.

Backus and students from his civil engineering program at the university did a small scale parking turnover study for the village last year. That study, although limited, seemed to indicate good parking turnover in the downtown business section.

“I appreciate the work that’s done with this. I would say from my knowledge and research and background, one of the benefits of having the good turnover we had during the study we did for you all was that we were using enforcement and we had metered parking,” Backus said.

Backus said choosing to remove metered parking would not necessarily guarantee good turnover.

“It’s an experiment. I applaud you for taking the chance on doing that. I would say it's hard to go back to a paid parking scenario once you have gone off the paid parking scenario,” he said. Backus said that could be problematic down the line for the board’s successors.

Backus also said he thought it would be helpful for the public to know specifically how parking permits would be implemented into the local law. Permit parking will be developed further as the village begins to manage its new two-hour free system.

“I see where you are going to be using permit parking but it's not yet specified yet how those permits will be put into local law,” Backus said. He added that how the alleyway parking will be addressed was somewhat unclear in the amended law as well.

He said however that he applauded the step to amend the code and that the fee schedule in the proposed law needed an update. He also praised the village for using a technology solution for the enforcement of the new parking system.

T2 parking system

Later during the board meeting, the trustees and the mayor voted to pay $9,960 from the village’s unrestricted fund balance to pay the firm T2 Parking Solutions for the first year of a three-year contract.

The firm will supply the software system for the village’s parking enforcement system as well as one handheld parking enforcement tool village police officers will use in the field to monitor the two-hour parking and write and issue tickets if need be.

The fee includes the $3,000 cost of the tool which utilizes a cellular data connection to photograph and scan vehicle plates and tire positions, functioning essentially as a virtual tire chalking device.

The $9,960 cost also includes training costs on the new equipment and startup of the system.

Under the contract the village will be supplied with one of the handheld T2 devices. Village Police Chief Michael Ames said the village of Saranac Lake which also uses the system reported that the device is rugged and has held up over the one year that municipality has fielded it. However, Ames said the arrangement with the firm allows for next day FedEx shipment of a new unit should the initial tool the village receives is damaged or inoperable in some way.

The lead-up

Village officials and members of the community and local business leaders, as part of a parking sub-committee, have spent the last few months hashing out options on how to handle parking in the downtown business district around Market Street.

The village is planning a major streetscape overhaul (expected to start in 2025) funded by state Downtown Revitalization Initiative money, and officials had wanted to phase out the aging and decrepit paid parking meters in favor of a more tech savvy approach. The meters brought in around $10,000 in revenues according to village officials, but required extensive maintenance and management of the coin collected, racking up a cost of about $20,000 according to some estimates.

Initially discussions centered around digital parking kiosks but that idea was scrapped after some public outcry over the cost, potential inconvenience and the idea that visitors and residents would still have to pay a fee for parking downtown.

Committee members arrived at the free two-hour parking system, as a means to keep parking turnover high during business hours and keep downtown accessible and business friendly.

Read more about the new T2 system and the village’s proposed code amendments at https://tinyurl.com/3brkvvc9 .