Dec. 2—Delhi village residents and business owners spoke out against paid parking along Main Street after Michael Wieszchowski of GPI Engineering presented a parking study his firm conducted in July.

Prior to Wieszchowski giving the overview of the study, Delhi Mayor Sridhar Samudrala told a large audience the village is losing $150,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and earlier this year lost $200,000 in State University of New York Aid from the state. He said the parking study was done to see if money could be raised by instituting paid parking along Main Street.

The company looked at available parking along Main Street from Clinton Street to Orchard Street, along Division Street from Main Street to Second Street, along Court Street from Main Street to village hall, along Church Street, along Kingston Street from Main Street to Elm Street, and along Second Street. The study also looked at all the parking available at private businesses, churches, government buildings and the municipal parking lot by Hoyt Park.

The survey was completed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, and Thursday, July 21 to capture data on a farmers market day and a typical summer day, the study said. The study also outlined the parking restrictions within the village, of which, two-hour parking is the most common.

The parking study said, "The existing 278 public parking spaces are sufficient to cover the general parking demand of the land uses within the study area with about a 35% occupancy rate."

The parking study also included how much it would cost to install parking meters along Main Street and listed projected revenue from those parking meters. If the village installed kiosk parking meters, the cost to install would be $325,000, and the projected revenue would be $207,514 per year if the village did not sell parking permits to village residents, and $203,324 if the village did sell permits for $120, per year, the study said.

Several people questioned the estimated revenue the parking meters would generate, including longtime Main Street business owner Jerry Pellegrino. "The study was done on a Wednesday and Thursday in July," Pellegrino said. "What about January when there's nobody here? I drove down Main Street tonight and it was vacant. Using July figures is a tragic assessment."

Wieszchowski said the parking spaces averaged 34% capacity and the firm lowered that figure to 28% to calculate the potential revenue.

Paul Decker said he owns three buildings in the village and paid $30,000 to add parking to one of his properties to be in code compliance as a rental property. He asked if the property owners who don't provide parking to their renters would be fined.

Decker also asked several questions about parking enforcement, which Delhi Village Police Chief Michael Mills answered. Decker asked if the police department could enforce the current parking regulations better. Mills said the department is short staffed and the revenue generated doesn't equal what is spent. Decker asked if a parking enforcement officer has to be a police officer. Mills answered no, it could be someone else, but through his office.

Decker also asked how much the study cost. Samudrala said the study cost approximately $21,000, plus $10,000 in time and effort by village personnel.

Mina Takahashi, who owns a building on Main Street said the study was flawed not only because of the projections, but in the number of parking spots it said her business had. She also questioned why the study was completed.

Village Trustee Ian Lamont said "Several people raised concerns about available parking," including the congestion around the Courthouse Square. He said the village wanted information about how other communities raised revenues through paid parking. "One reason we did this study was several people have been moving to the area post COVID." He said the village used ARPA funding to compile the study.

Delaware National Bank of Delhi President and CEO Peter Gioffe said the bank shares its parking lot with the county and asked who would enforce people parking illegally at their lot. Wieszchowski said it would be up to the business owner. Later in the meeting, Gioffe asked what the timeline would be for the village board to approve the meters. "I have a budget to prepare," and said he would like to know so he could add an employee to be a parking lot monitor. Samudrala said it would be between six months and a year.

Krystina Palmatier said it was unfair to make low-income residents who have no other choice but to park on Main Street to make them pay for parking.

Barbara Sturdevant, who lives on Second Street, said she was opposed to paid meters because people would just park on her street instead. She said some Wednesdays during the summer it's hard to people to navigate her street because of parking.

In addition to the opposition, some residents offered some solutions to the financial situation the village is facing.

Former mayor David Truscott suggested annexing more properties into the village, such as along Sherwoods Road, Delside Acres and the development on Elk Creek. He said there are several vacant lots in the village that could be built upon.

Raegan Reed, asked if a committee could be formed with village and town representatives and members of the business community to come up with ideas. Samudrala said he has been trying to meet with town officials about sharing services for several months. She also suggested dissolving the village.

Former village trustee Barbara Jones suggested working with the town and forming the city of Delhi, as cities get more state funding. "The village of Cobleskill is looking into it," she said.

Another resident suggested redoing the zoning so that the business district could be expanded.

Several residents also said the county needs to pay the village some money as host of the county seat.

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.