Originally Published June 26, 2020
At Thursday’s Board of Selectmen meeting there was a unanimous vote to approve resumption of the Dept of Parking Services collection of parking fees effective 9:00am on Monday, July 6.
Deputy Police Chief Mark Marino, who is in charge of Parking Services, said the department furloughed part time workers during the pandemic, and did not anticipate bringing them back immediately.
He said while parking fees were suspended, parking enforcement officers assisted with monitoring the parks to keep people away, and that administrative staff who could do work at home were doing so.
“(Use of parking services staff) progressed to soft openings and making sure people weren’t congregating in large groups,” he said. “Then we reverted to using them for other functions. Now that we’ve closed Greenwich Avenue, we’ve used them to monitor the traffic posts there.”
Also, Marino said there were open positions the department delayed filling because there are revenue issues both in the department and the town. Lastly, he said the department is scaling back some capital projects for fiscal year ’21 including paving parking lots.
Metered locations are enforced Monday through Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm and on Saturdays between 9:00am and12:00pm.
During these time frames, parking on Greenwich Ave and other locations, as posted, is limited to two hours.
Those needing to park for longer than two hours are encouraged to use one of the long term/12 hour lots.
Parking in all Town operated parking lots and metered spaces is free on Sundays and Town Holidays, unless posted otherwise.
Inquiries should be directed to the Dept of Parking Services at [email protected] or by calling the office at (203) 618-3060.
Also during the Thursday meeting, Camillo said the “Reimagine Greenwich” group, who are looking at expanding the bumpouts on Greenwich Ave to other business districts, are also talking about fundraising to help beautify downtown and possibly fund a trolley/tram from Town Hall every 30 minutes, which would alleviate the parking crunch.
“We’re looking at getting some of the employees who work on the Ave off the Avenue. The trolley/tram could help with that,” he said.