An item on the Abilene City Council's agenda Thursday could, in time, bring change downtown in terms of parking.
All available spaces would be two hours, except by the U.S. Postal Service's main branch, where parking would be one hour.
Parking meters presently at the post office would be removed.
The item, which is in its first of two required readings, comes at the recommendation of a downtown task force created by Mayor Anthony Williams, City Manager Robert Hanna said.
"Visiting with the postmaster for the post office, it was very clear they wanted something less than two hours, but they were agreeable to removing parking meters," Hanna said.
The meters are old, meaning replacement parts are not available, while replacing them with newer meters would be "extremely expensive," he said.
Revenue from downtown parking enforcement does pay for the people who work in that program, Hanna said, but removing the downtown meters should not greatly affect that income.
The post office is the only location in Abilene that currently that has meters, Hanna said.
The item will be brought back to the council for a final reading at a future meeting.
New airport eats likely
In other business, the council will vote to approve agreement with Abilene Pizza Company and The Flour Shop Bakery to operate at Abilene Regional Airport.
Rent for the first year will be free, after that the airport will charge $500 a month, Hanna said.
Transportation Services Director Don Green said the airport's restaurant space has been vacant for a year.
Moose's Café previously occupied the space.
The council also will also vote on a revised plan for a new aircraft firefighting station.
Bids for the project came back higher than anticipated, Hanna said, the lowest about $5.3 million.
The council will vote on scaling back the project to come nearer its initial $4.1 million budgeted amount.
The changes lower the project cost by around $850,000, making the project cost $4.47 million.
"We just can't get the building we thought we were going to get for the price," Hanna said.
The primary change will be a bay that requires trucks to back into it, rather than having a driveway around the structure.
The bay will still be large enough to house current and future equipment, which is anticipated to become larger,
The design is "less convenient, but more cost-effective," Hanna said.
Letter to governor on agenda
The council will also:
►Discuss a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott asking for more local control as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Hanna and others, including a committee made of up Mayor Anthony Williams and Council members Weldon Hurt and Shane Price, have been working on crafting the letter for a few weeks.
Hanna said that he wanted to make sure "the message is clear and that it is done in a respectful way."
Hanna said that Abbott released new guidelines last week, but those do not "solve the problem of bars," which are still required to be closed.
"In his statement, the governor said he was working on trying to find a way to open bars back up in a healthy manner," Hanna said.
►Vote to approve a change order to Bontke Construction for the Minter Park renovation project.
City staff is asking for an additional $60,000 for needed upgrades to electrical and plumbing for the park's water curtain feature.
►Vote to use CARES Act Grant funds for Abilene Independent School District's Distance Learning Initiative.
The council at a previous meeting voted to do the same for the Wylie ISD.
The vote would allow an allocation of $180,000 from CARES funds, which are federal dollars.
►Vote to accept a a proposal from Ceridian HCM, Inc. to provide the Ceridian Dayforce system for various "human capital management" functions. Those include time clock, payroll, etc., with a proposed start date of Oct. 1, 2021.
The projected five year cost is roughly $1.6 million, assuming a 3% yearly cost increase.
Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
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Abilene City Council to have first vote on two-hour downtown parking, no more meters - Abilene Reporter-News
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