St James PC financially stable ... but mayor says more earnings exist through traffic management

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite the St James Parish Council having surpassed its monetary projections for parking fees for the first half of the 2013-2014 financial year, Montego Bay Mayor Glendon Harris says there are massive potential earnings in that area still untapped.

"What was projected for April 2013 to the end of August 2013 was $2,383,000.30, and for that period we collected $4,182,702.45," the mayor told Western Focus during an interview on Thursday. "But I am not fully satisfied. I might be about 45 per cent satisfied because I know the potential."

The mayor said the council was now in the process of imple-menting a metered parking system on Barnett Street, which is the main thoroughfare leading from the western end of the city to the heart of downtown Montego Bay.

"But we have some streets in Montego Bay like Barnett Street, for example, where there is no charge to park. In most cities that I go to, the parking rate is for 15 minutes and not for hours as for here.

"We will be looking at restricted parking on Barnett Street where metered parking will be allowed. At present, persons can park on Barnett Street all day. No charge. It (paid parking on Barnett Street) is now going through the ropes so that it can be gazetted."

This initiative, the mayor said, is projected to earn the council $1 million per month. He said it took $737 million to run the St James Parish Council for the year and that these fees played a major part in covering those costs but that he was pleased that the council was in good financial order and operating without a deficit.

The minutes of the last meeting of the St James Parish Council's Commercial Services Committee, held on July 2, revealed that the council earned a total of $649,140 in the months of April and May from metered parking-ticket sales, and a total of $381,400 from taxi stand fees at King and Union streets and Embassy/North Street locations.

The council also earned a significant amount of funds from clamping and towing fines paid over by non-compliant motor vehicle operators whose vehicles were clamped or ordered to be towed away by the municipal police. For towed vehicles, $199,500 was collected and $295,000 for clamped vehicles.

Harris says the towing of vehicles is an action which the council would rather not take, except in cases of emergencies.

"Towing is not our preference. We prefer conformity. So we have scaled down the towing, and we really now tow when the vehicles are blocking traffic. We do more clamping. We have been restricted with the clamping because of the lack of another unit. We are expecting that vehicle any time now because approval has been granted. We just have one car, and that car has to do almost everything," the mayor said.

- C.G.