ST. JOHNSBURY- While parking in St. Johnsbury may be free, if you park for too long, it will soon cost you twice as much as it once did. Starting at midnight on Friday December 1st, the price for parking beyond the allotted time will increase from five dollars to ten.
"I think everybody is talking about the parking ticket increase, but they aren't talking as much about the real piece of that, which is the fact that St. J eliminated all of our meters. I mean all our metered spaces are now free," said Chad Whitehead, Town Manager for St. Johnsbury.
Parking is free for two hours on all streets except Railroad Street, where parking is only 90 minutes.
"What the meters effectively do is get those spaces not to be used by somebody parking all day long," said Whitehead. "We're going to lose money the next couple of years and we know that."
The increase in parking ticket prices is part of an overall plan for the town of St. Johnsbury.
"We're not looking at ticketing pricing as a revenue source. Not really, as it's pretty insignificant, but right now our ticket prices are really low, they are one of the lowest in the state," said Whitehead.
The plan also calls for new parking meters to be installed as the old ones were outdated.
"Within the next two years we will be re-installing meters," said Whitehead.
There are several options for meters, including a smart reader; credit card, coin, cash, or using a mobile app.
"I don't think there St. Johnsbury really has a parking problem. We've got plenty of parking," said Robin Little, Owner of Moose River on Railroad Street. "Well I think people definitely appreciate free parking."
As for enforcement of the area, the St. Johnsbury Police Department will be marking the bottom of a car's tire with chalk, and keeping a log of the vehicles.
Although the department was not marking vehicles Thursday, they said they would still ticket if they saw a car parked illegally.
Whitehead said that enforcement is expected to continue daily.
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