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WILKES-BARRE — February missed its budgeted monthly revenue, but the March numbers should look better when more spots are filled in Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority garages downtown, according to its executive director Tom Torbik.
The authority gained a couple hundred more monthly parkers as a result of the deal by the city to lease all of the spots in its James F. Conahan Intermodal Transportation Facility, Torbik said Tuesday at the authority’s monthly meeting.
Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance employees will take the spots from Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and Department of Revenue workers.
“The City has 200 in the Intermodal from Labor and Industry. So we will be getting those 200 cars over to the parking authority,” Torbik said.
Most of the spots will be in the authority’s Central garage, next to the Intermodal. The authority will commit another 73 spaces in its Park & Lock East Garage for the state workers, Torbik said. The spots go for $70 a month.
The authority’s solicitor Murray Ufberg worked out agreements with the city and state to have the switch occur on March 1. The additional revenue will show up in the March monthly report presented at the authority’s next meeting on April 16.
Monthly revenue for February was $41,275, well below the $58,100 budgeted. Part of that was due to the net loss of 100 spaces at Park & Lock East when Geisinger moved hundreds of employees to a new building in the CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park East in Jenkins Township.
“Geisinger moved out 300 cars, but moved a hundred back in,” Torbik said.
The authority continues to work with Fidelity Bank in Dunmore for a mortgage to purchase Park & Lock East Garage from the city for $1.55 million, Torbik told the board. The city is depending on the revenue to balance its $50.4 million budget this year.