City Council discusses extending city parking limit

Athens City Council discussed the possibility of lengthening the city’s 24-hour parking limit to 48 hours at their Monday night committee meeting. 

Councilmember Arian Smedley said extending the parking limit would be a worthwhile long-term project and provide some relief to the public. 

Smedley said Athens Police Captain Ralph Harvey was open to the idea. He said the Athens Police Department would have the manpower to enforce parking laws under this potential new limit.

“Forty-eight hours made sense based on his enforcement abilities,” Smedley said. 

Mayor Steve Patterson expressed concerns about extending the parking limit, citing potential issues with storage parking on narrower streets.

“We might find ourselves in a situation to where we were many years ago where we noticed there’s a lot of storage parking going on,” Patterson said. “Not to mention all kinds of interesting things living under vehicles that were sitting there for months and months on end.”

The council also discussed a new handrail for the Richland Avenue bridge. This substantial, custom-made handrail will require a final $13,000 appropriation. 

Councilmember Beth Clodfelter expressed concerns about the price of the new handrail.

Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle explained the handrailing would be custom-made for two stairwells and of substantial length. The $13,000 appropriation would cover all potential expenses in relation to the railing, Pyle said.

The Richland Avenue pedestrian tunnel opened to pedestrian traffic the week of Aug. 31, 2020, and cost approximately $3.3 million, according to a previous report by The New Political.  

The council discussed appropriating additional funds for the parking garage fund to pay off costs from previous renovations. 

Councilmember Sam Crowl spoke in favor of a $14,100 appropriation to the parking garage fund, in addition to a $100,000 loan from the city general fund. The parking garage fund would pay back at least $5,000 annually to the general fund loan.

“These are renovations that were done a few years ago to the parking garage, and we have a set amount that we have to pay off. It's not as flexible as some of our other ones,” City Auditor Kathy Hecht said. 

In other business, Mayor Patterson said the Athens City-County Health Department vaccinated 1,100 individuals, primarily K-12 teachers, last Friday. Additionally, only nine COVID-19 cases were reported by the Athens City-County Health Department on Monday.