Summit looks to move parking meters
CLARKS SUMMIT - Borough council plans to examine relocating some of its parking meters to maximize their use and benefit business employees.
After a presentation from George Carros, hired by the borough years ago to maintain the parking meters, council at its meeting Tuesday decided they would meet with Mr. Carros at a later date, so they could "map out" the borough's 140 parking meters and determine whether they should rearrange them.
"If we had the 10-hour meters in an area where the employees can park, I don't think it would be a problem," Councilman Herman Johnson said. "A lot of people are saying our employees have to keep running out and put quarters in."
Of Clarks Summit's 140 parking meters, 21 are 10-hour meters, which only take quarters. A quarter allows people to park at the meters - six of which are located on Depot Street - for 2½ hours, Mr. Carros said.
There are also some on Main Avenue, Davis Street, Zimmerman Street and Barrett Street.
The other 119 meters are two-hour meters, which cost 50 cents.
"I don't believe that anyone coming into the Summit uses those meters," Mr. Carros said, referring to the 10-hour meters. "They are basically for employees."
Also at the meeting Tuesday, representatives from the Abington Area Joint Recreation Board spoke to council about funding for Hillside Park on Winola Road, emphasizing that the five municipalities only pay for maintenance work, not improvement projects. Previously, the group had asked the towns to increase their annual contributions by 3 percent. Clarks Summit paid 75 percent of the requested amount of $15,832 - roughly $12,000.
"All I am asking you guys to do is to ... be sensitive to the people of this borough," Vice President Roy Davis said. "We respect the board's ambition. But we have dropped almost $400,000 in the last four years in earned income taxes."
In addition to the borough, Clarks Green, South Abington Twp., Glenburn Twp. and Waverly Twp. fund the maintenance work at Hillside Park.
Contact the writer: miorfino@timesshamrock.com, @miorfinoTT on Twitter