Speaking of 4th Ave, My guess is by the lack of line painting, money will just appear to repave 4th, including in front of The Springer Palace. I would guess our Mayor has not driven on streets like Central, in front of The Anco, Camelot, and Denny’s. What a side of P.G. to present to our tourists. Potholes, craters and failed patches. Well, at least it’s free parking.

How much to maintain this new system? Does it work at -30? Will staff be trained to get out of their vehicle to remove fake license plates and brush off the snow from said plate? How much will it cost to bring the folks that don’t pay their fines to court?

I heard there is already a plan to copy Cherry’s plate so you can simply hang it over your own when you get out of your car!

More debt for the citizens of Prince George for a system nobody wants. So much for democracy and financially responsible government.

Will you be able to pay $8.00 to puchase an 8 hour pass and remain in your parking spot for the full day? If yes, then there will even be less prime parking available to the general public for 10 minute errands downtown, as employee’s of downtown bussiness’s will take up the good locations quickly.

Changing 4th Avenue to a two way street is a direct result of locating the new Police Station at 4th and Victoria. With 4th being one way the police are very constricted when it comes to getting in and out of this building.

Im sure that the $400,000.00 for the conversion will not be charged to the cost of the Police station,.

To recoup the $1.24 million in five years they would have to take in some $248,000.00 per year. Seems like a high number to me. I wonder if they deduct the amount of money they would make from this number if they just left things as they were,. Probably not. City Hall usually uses what they call **creative book keeping when it come to these types of projects.

This is the biggest load of crap I have heard to date !!I think the 4th and Victoria will be a major crash zone when 4th avenue becomes a two way street !IMHO this is the worst decision that Scary Shari has made to date !!

Absolutely mind boggling how stupid our mayor and council is.. Actually very frightening as they carelessly spend our money driving us deeper into debt

This is ridiculous!! Why is it that once these idiots are voted in we no longer have a voice? Sounds like dictatorship to me.

The two way street idea still has me wondering ….That idea is going to seriously hurt some body.

Spend Spend Spend. Seems they must have consulted with the RCMP. Maybe they can build a fancy new building and employ a whole new crew to run it. How to get more blood from a stone…is it possible to bankrupt a town..and does money really grow on trees and how to harvest it. Questions for out of touch people.

This is NEVER going to help any business struggling to stay alive downtown. Shelters, and drop in centers don’t create a busy downtown core. And the cost for this is not going to help the downtown. It’s just deeper into our (taxpayers)pockets! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!
When do we get to vote for city councillors again!? I can’t wait.

DANMOFFAT:”IMHO this is the worst decision that Scary Shari has made to date !!”

Perhaps! There are other decisions which could easily be a challenge for top spot!

The City says that they are not going to borrow the money for Downtown Parking. Instead they will use funds from the Debt Reduction Reserve, and some from the Off Street Parking Reserve.

Sooooo. Let me get this straight. If I use money from the debt reduction reserve for downtown parking, then I do not have this money to reduce the debt. If I cannot reduce the debt then, I will continue to pay for the debt over a longer period of time. The cost would be much the same as if I had borrowed the money.

So why are they doing this funny financing??

It very simple. If they borrowed the money they would have to go to a referendum, or to an Alternative Approval Process. They know that either way they would lose. So find a way around the problem.

Someone at City Hall made a decision to circumvent the process of taxpayer involvement in spending or borrowing money. This decision shows the contempt in which the City holds it citizens, and we need to know WHO is behind this type of shenanigans.

You can rest assured that they are working the same scam for the performing arts centre. They will transfer funds from land sales, etc; to the Capital Projects Fund, and then use that money for the Cities portion of the PAC, and thus avoid having to have a referendum, or and alternative approval process.

Is this the way we want business run at City Hall.???

Palupo beat me to it – Isnt using money that would reduce debt to pay for something really the same is putting it on credit anyway?

Thats it ,

I’m going to have to send the wife downtown to straighten this B S out.Do the mayor and councillors run their own affairs like they run this city [ just wondering ].How about some common sense decision making .

wha?! who?! how in the…?!

i’ve become so desensitized to the mind-boggling decisions made by this council that when I see news like this I just stare at the screen and say, “yup, sounds about right”. it’s amazing that I can go to downtown Kelowna and park within walking distance from the boardwalk alongside the lake for less money than it will cost to park on Third Ave in PG in front of the Firepit and needle exchange.

I don’t believe this is about creating revenue from the parked time @ $1/hr. I believe it is about collecting fines. They could have made it $0.01/hr. The point is to create parking violations.

From the City’s stainable Finance Policy approved by Council on August 23, 2010.

“Policy 18.3
The City will establish a debt reduction reserve that may be used to pay out balances owing on Municipal Finance Authority issued debentures upon their 1st ten year maturities.”

I do see in that document that it can be used for the proposed purpose.

Could someone please let us know whether the 2010 policy has been ammended, or whether there is a way that this can be done that it does not breach policy.

The other thing is that funds have to be returned to be used as intended by the named funds. When will this be done and how much will the internal rate of interest be.

I really do not like these missives from the City that leave things open to the imagination of those who pay for all this.

[url]http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/legislativeservices/CityPolicies/Documents/Sustainable_Finance[1].pdf

http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/legislativeservices/CityPolicies/Documents/Sustainable_Finance%5B1%5D.pdf

“The point is to create parking violations”

They create parking violations right now without meters.

And they can’t collect said fines if you refuse to pay them!

All I know is the city council will balance the budget.
Now???? Did you know that balancing the budget is simply spending every penny collected? Now you have it.

Ridiculous. Nothing else to say. It gets more insane everyday.

Absolutely nutty way to address an $80,000 annual shortfall in the current system. Unbelievably dumb

If they do change 4th to 2-way, I think the only way it would work is to mirror 3rd. One lane each way, with stall parking and not parallel parking – too much wasted space with parallel parking. 4-way stop at every intersection to help with pedestrians as we all know crosswalks seem to be invisible to most drivers in this town.

I am confused about the 4th avenue change. Are they going to change it all the way or only from Victoria to Queensway? If they do it west of Victoria what will they do when they get to the S corner where it comes down from 5th avenue?

Fixing Roads would be better use of the Money.

WE have a couple of townhomes for sale in our complex for around 250. Taxes around 1500 less homeowner grant. And theCity of Abby has no parking meters. No pot holes either. See you soon.
Cheers

Spending 1.4 million to make up for an 80k shortfall is almost like driving all the way to Alberta to save HST… oh wait a minute… *light bulb on*

“According to staff, it is estimated it will take about 5 years to recoup the money”

And the ears of the accountants in the room just perked up. Oh really? Please share those working papers!

(Was it not reported in the past that the net inflow to the city for parking was only around 70-80K per year?)

“If they do it west of Victoria what will they do when they get to the S corner where it comes down from 5th avenue?”

Roundabout(s) … A favourite City trick, break the project apart so that the total cost does not come out all at once.

blog/view/19409/1/two+way+traffic+flow+in+downtown+in+a+roundabout+way?id=140&st=6900

Keep you eye on the pea under the thimbles.

So, another $2 million for that. It states “The project is not funded, but is ready to go should funds become available.”

So, tell us oh wise ones at City Hall, do you feel the movement of the tea leaves are tell us that funds are going to become available before the winter games? Do you reads the turned out pockets of the famous taxpayers?

“the base fee will be $1 per hour”
Are options going to include 30 minutes for $0.50? 15 minutes for $0.25?

Not likely Gus.

Townhouses for sale in a complex in Abby.

Sounds like a strata development. If so, what are the strata fees per year or per month and what services do they cover?

Even one million plua cities can be single industry based communities. Diverse cities have much better security.

“Detroit files for bankruptcy protection”

“Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy Thursday, its finances ravaged and its neighbourhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.

“The filing, which had been feared for months, put the city on an uncertain course that could mean laying off municipal employees, selling off assets, raising fees and scaling back basic services such as trash collection and snow plowing, which have already been slashed.

” ……… the city would pay current employees. But “beyond that, all bets are off.”

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/detroit-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-1

“Detroit files for bankruptcy protection”

Guess what happens to Prince George if the pulp mills ever shut down?? I wonder how good real estate will be as an investment then?? AND the parking would be raised to $5 per hour in a heartbeat.

Are the discussions at City Hall about selling off assets and reducing snow plowing an indication that P.G. is too far into debt already?

Is transferring snow removal from the general budget to the water, sewer and garbage collection bill a desperation move?

What will happen to this city if interest rates ever double, triple or quadruple again, as they well might?

Curtains.

Tjhe City of Detroit has just declared bankrupsy.; Is PG far behind?
Cheers

So… the Mayor parks free behind her business on 4th avenue, and parks for free at City Hall, which all the city employees get to do, so why should she care if everyone else has to pay to shop or work downtown. Free parking for city employees is not a taxable benefit, so it is just a
“perk”. So for some reason, if you are an active member of society and have a job, you should be penalized and made to pay to go to work. Parkades charge around $55 per month x 12 months = $660.00 per year to go to work every day (which I’m sure will go way up, as soon as the meters go in). City employees and the Mayor = $0.00. I’m sure that employees that work downtown don’t have an extra $2800.00/year now to try to make a living. ($1 per hour x 8 hours per day = $40 per week x 52 weeks = $2800). sorry Mayor we don”t get perks like you, and we don’t get a tax break either. How about adding some nice big parking lots (like the one at City Hall) and let all the employees that work downtown park for free there, so they can make an honest living and not be ‘charged’ to work downtown. Most employers downtown do not have any employee parking, so we are forced into having to pay to go to work.

For now, PG is quite far behind …… but it has a lot of work to do to remain that way. AND, it is not all by cutting, but by realizing the situation and learning to dealt with it by themselves or consultants who are smarter than the KPMG group showed us.

Here are some US cities that were in the cross hairs three year ago.

http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-most-bankrupt-cities-2010-4?op=1

I read somewhere else that life cycle of the parking meter system would be 10 years.
What a waste.

Hey, citizen3521, instead of whining about how the City gets ‘free’ parking, why don’t you go to your employer and demand the same?

the management of the City of Prince George is akin to a rudderless ship with a grinning demento at the wheel, surrounded by drooling lackeys. Yes master!
metalman.