Mayor Brown proposes reducing meter parking rates in Wilkes-Barre, forgives emergency loans to small businesses

WILKES-BARRE — Meter parking in the city could cost less soon if Mayor George Brown has his way.

During his “State of the City” address Friday on the city’s Facebook page Brown said he wants to cut the hourly rate in half to $1.

Brown said he’ll ask City Council to approve the reduction.

“I, like many residents and business owners, believe the rates were set too high under the previous administration,” Brown said.

Businesses downtown are operating at full capacity with the lifting of most of the restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, businesses are starting to bring their employees back to work , Brown offered as reasons for the reduction.

“My goal is to have a downtown that has a parking meter rate that is fair and reasonable and conducive to helping downtown businesses once again thrive. I believe lowering the meter rates is a necessary step in achieving that goal,” Brown said.

Brown’s predecessor Mayor Tony George doubled the hourly rate to $2 in his 2018 budget. But the higher rate never came close to producing the budgeted annual revenue of $1 million. George cut the revenue projection to $750,000 in 2019 and it remained at that level in Brown’s 2020 budget.

In this year’s budget Brown further cut the projected to $725,000. The draft financial report for the first quarter ending March 31 of this year showed the meters generated $65,067 in revenue or approximately 9% of the annual budgeted revenue.

Small businesses and restaurants in the city that participated in the short-term, no-interest loan program created by Brown’s administration to help them during the pandemic will get an additional break.

Last year Brown extended the repayment deadline to 2022. But Friday he eliminated it altogether.

“I’m pleased to announce that these loans will be forgiven as further assistance for these businesses as they work to remain viable,” Brown said.

Brown and his administration, with authorization from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, redirected approximately $373,000 in a long dormant account to assist local businesses forced to shut down or cut back due to the pandemic restrictions.