Colonial Parking: May revenues top budget as borough moves to shorten daytime paid hours and test Express Pay

Colonial Parking reported May garage revenues of $254,000, exceeding the budgeted $208,000 and last May's $236,000, and committee members approved a one-year trial of Flash Express Pay for garage users.

The report came from Chris Hankins of Colonial Parking, who said, "May was a good month Total revenues were $254,000 which was significantly above the budget number of 208,000 and ahead of last, year the same month last year of $236,000." He added that year-to-date revenue was $1,071,000 and that net operating income for the month was $206,000, both ahead of budget.

Why it matters: higher-than-expected garage revenue affects the borough's parking fund outlook and informs near-term policy changes the committee plans to implement, including shortened paid daytime hours and new payment technology.

Hankins gave metrics the committee used to evaluate garage use: 964 monthly parkers were billed in May; transient revenue per day was $2,082 at the Bicentennial garage and $2,402 at the Chestnut Street garage; average tickets per day were 565 (Bicentennial) and 653 (Chestnut Street); the average ticket value was $3.68, which Hankins said "equates to an average stay of 2 hours and 27 minutes." He also reported year-to-date operating expenses of about $244,000.

Committee members discussed recent enforcement changes for night parkers and next steps for daytime parkers. Committee chair Sheila Vaccaro said they would roll out the new council-approved hours, moving daytime paid hours from 6 a.m.–9 p.m. to 6 a.m.–6 p.m. The committee asked Colonial to notify groups with dedicated contacts first, then work through individual accounts in stages to avoid service disruption. Hankins said early-entry problems with some night parkers have been resolved and a few had been converted to 24/7 passes.

On communications, the parking director said staff would send a separate email notification, add a blurb to the monthly invoice, and post laminated notices in the garages. The director also noted that monthly customers receive an emailed invoice and that most monthly payments are collected via automatic withdrawal.

The committee approved a one-year, no-cost trial of Flash Express Pay, a Flash Parking product that can text Flash members and enable automatic payments; staff said cameras would be provided during the free trial and the borough would decide later whether to pay for the hardware. The director characterized the trial as "a good thing to try, to test drive it." Colonial staff emphasized member-approval safeguards built into Flash that require account holders to approve charges for other drivers.

Other operational notes included a recent repaving of Lot 5 (near United Methodist Church) that widened spaces, and an ongoing software reconciliation with meter revenue reports. The director reported parking-ticket counts of 1,182 for May and said some meter revenue totals are still being reconciled with Barb's official report.

What remains to happen: staff will run staged notifications and parameter changes for daytime monthly parkers, post in-garage notices, monitor revenue/usage following the hour change, and evaluate the Flash Express Pay trial before committing to any hardware purchases.

Sources: Committee meeting discussion and Colonial Parking monthly report.