AMBRIDGE — Shoppers along Merchant Street don’t need to worry about hoarding their spare change anymore.
This month, workers will be removing the parking meters from Merchant Street, offering free parking with a caveat: Vehicles may park for only two hours in the business district.
“It’s a business-friendly idea,” Borough Manager Joe Kauer said.
The move goes hand-in-hand with the borough’s $2.5 million Streetscape project, for which officials are poised to award a bid later this month. The project stretches between Fourth and Eighth street and includes replacement of sidewalks and curbs, removal of current utility poles and overhead wiring, and installation of new ornamental street lanterns. Benches, trash cans, bicycle racks, planters, decorative crosswalks, tree pits, trees and landscaping will also be included.
Kauer said public works employees will remove the parking meters by the end of the month.
“That way, we don’t have to put umpteen poles back in and set the concrete,” he said. “The timing is great here.”
The parking meters generated about $10,000 each year. Losing that revenue isn’t going to have a major impact on the borough’s $4.5 million budget, Kauer said.
What will be difficult is enforcement, Kauer said. Vehicles will be ticketed for parking longer than two hours along Merchant Street, he said.
“There will be growing pains to police it,” Kauer said.