After being relatively quiet for the past few years, the issue of downtown parking is rearing its ugly head once again.
At the last meeting of 2019 Monday night, the Frankfort City Council heard a presentation from Councilman Clarence Warthan and Frankfort Police Chief Troy Bacon on some possible changes for downtown parking.
“This is a lot bigger project than we thought,” said Warthan. “The purpose is to make sure of a rotation of our parking spaces. We are looking to go back to two-hour parking.”
Bacon said the models currently used in Noblesville and Lafayette might be the best situation for the city. In their study, Bacon said they found “way too many fraudulent parking passes”. Bacon added the city needs to move this operation into code enforcement as well as moving the individual who handles this to full time from part time and invest in a license plate reader.
Bacon said the total cost to do these two things would be $61,740.71 which means the city would have to find an additional $33,045 in its budget to implement the plan which would include color coated signs in the downtown area. Those signs would dictate how long an individual could park in one space.
Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes talks about the vision for downtown parking.
“Our main goal is to create more circulation in our downtown so that new consumers can come downtown, visit our small businesses and then we have the spaces open up relatively quickly for new consumers,” said McBarnes. “Different consumers can come and help stimulate our economy.”
McBarnes, who added the city would do away with the chalking of tires and go to a GPS system in a vehicle that would be driven around the downtown, assessed the overall downtown parking situation.
“We are very much behind the times,” said McBarnes. “We’re very antiquated on how we’re enforcing downtown parking.”
This issue will be brought back up in January.
The council also heard an updated report on the proposed aquatic center from HWC Architect Kyle Lueken, who said they currently have 60 percent of the design done and expect to reach 90 percent by the first part of January.
“By the end of January, we should have a complete design that we can bid out to contractors, get those (bids) back and go to the council for bonding,” said McBarnes. “That way we can stay on a timeline of getting that pool open by Memorial Day of 2021.”
Lueken said the cost remains under $8 million. That includes the base bid of $7.8 million and about $500,000 for alternates.
In an executive session before the regularly scheduled meeting, the city council decided to re-elect Rick Gunyon to another term on the Utility Service Board.
This meeting was the final meeting for council members Jim Moyer, Lewis Wheeler and David Hussey. Three new members — Megan Sheets, Michael Brite and Brandt Fuller — join the council in January after being sworn in at a ceremony at the Clinton County Courthouse at 1 p.m. on Monday, December 30.