The Trenton Times published the following article on June 11, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Mercer County freeholders delay voting on parking fees at Trenton-Mercer Airport
By Brendan McGrath/The Times of Trenton
on June 11, 2013 at 10:42 PM, updated June 11, 2013 at 10:52 PMTRENTON — The Trenton-Mercer Airport will have 1,100 parking spots in total after construction of a new lot is finished in November, but the freeholders and County Executive Brian Hughes could not agree tonight how high parking fees could go.
The freeholders want to set a limit of $10 per day to park at the airport, but Hughes said he needs the upper end of the range to be $12.
“We didn’t just pick a number out of a hat,” Hughes said.
The administration last month requested approval for a range of $5 to $12 for daily parking costs, with $5 being the likely daily rate for long term parking and $12 being the most a patron could be charged in hourly fees for short term parking.
The different parking scales for short- and long-term parking would constitute a two-tier system, something Hughes said his administration hasn’t yet decided whether to establish, but he said a $12 ceiling on daily costs would give him flexibility to raise rates over time.
The airport has seen parking problems since Frontier Airlines began flying there late last year. If Frontier wants to add more routes or another airline is interested in flying out of Mercer, the airport may need to move to two-tiered parking, Hughes said.
Hughes said that a $10 cap could cause issues with hourly parking. An hourly rate of $2 with a daily cap of $10 would mean that they could only charge for five hours of short term parking each day.
Freeholder Lucylle Walter said that the $10 max would not necessarily be per day, but per whatever period the administration created. The freeholders did not think that it was previously established that the range of rates would mean per day.
Andrew Koontz, vice chair of the board, suggested that the administration develop a more detailed plan identifying rates for each tier.
This would be “easy to understand and easy to do in terms of ordinance language,” Koontz said.
Hughes continued to push for the original range of $5 to $12 and suggested that the freeholders delay the issue rather than vote for the $10 cap.
He said his administration should have more freedom to set parking rates and raise them as needed.
“What we are looking for is flexibility so that we don’t have to come back every year and give up what we feel is an administrative function,” Hughes said.
The freeholders postponed a vote on the issue and Hughes suggested that he would revisit the matter in September or October.
Contact Brendan McGrath at (609)989-5731 or at bmcgrath@njtimes.com.