The Frankfort City Council made progress on the downtown parking situation Monday night during a work session after the regularly scheduled meeting.
“We have a clearer idea where we’re at,” said Frankfort City Councilman Eric Woods.
Following last night’s meeting, the council agreed to eliminate the chalking of tires, eliminate parking permits basically because of all the fraudulent permits that are out there and go to a full-time enforcement individual.
“If we’re serious, we need a full-time employee doing this job,” said Frankfort Police Chief Troy Bacon.
Currently, the person doing parking enforcement downtown is a part-time employee.
No official action was taken at the meeting. However, the Council did take a straw pole vote which resulted in parking being three hours downtown by a 4-3 vote. But, several council members indicated they might be inclined to change their vote and go back to two hours.
One of the reasons for the parking dilemma is that downtown employees are parking in front of other businesses plus they are moving their cars around to avoid being ticketed.
Woods said it will be awhile before anything is changed.
“You are looking at at least a six-week process for sure once we have a working ordinance,” said Woods. “We owe it to the citizens of Frankfort to make sure they’re well informed on what we do. The key is communicating and to let them know what the new rules are and what the new expectations are moving forward.”
In other news, the Council approved awarding funds to three not-for-profit organizations.
“This is a tough decision we had to make because we understand all of the groups that applied are doing good things in the community and intend to do more as they move forward,” said Woods. “We budgeted $30,000 and we had well over that applied for.”
The organizations who were awarded were the Clinton County Boys and Girls Club ($14,343.75), Health Communities of Clinton County Coalition ($8,000) and the Paul Phillippe Resource Center ($7,656.25).
“We’re going to do a better job giving the parameters for the requests,” said Woods, who added they are trying to award programs that reach out and touch more citizens.
The Council also approved a declaratory resolution designating an economic revitalization are for a new housing project on the city’s east side.
Ellypsis is getting ready to build the Hometown Cottages of Frankfort behind St. Vincent and Witham Health Services. This is scheduled to be a 58-unit complex with 50 one-car garages attached.
“This is a $7 million investment of market rate housing in our community,” said Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes. “We know housing is a huge issue we face in Frankfort and this project will go a long way to help meet that need.”
This project will next be discussed at the February 24 meeting, which will include a public hearing and a confirmatory resolution.