A roll call, uh Mr.

Hanlin.

Here's the lot here.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

So good evening to everyone.

Um, tonight's special meeting is a continuation of our public meetings with our community partners to strengthen communication, improve coordination, and focus on identifying improvement opportunities for Allentown residents, the business community, and our visitors.

This evening's special meeting is to allow the Allentown Parking Authority to provide an overview of operations and review current and future initiatives at the APA.

Following the presentation of APA executive director John Haney, he will provide answers and feedback for questions that have been submitted by my colleagues.

After that portion of the of the agenda, there will be a cursey of the floor for members of the public.

So we're gonna kick this off, Mr.

Haney.

Um we'll start with a general overview and yep, perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

Good evening, uh, members of council.

Uh thank you for the opportunity to come and speak.

I realize I'm breaking your laws right off the bat because I'm not supposed to have a drink, but I have a feeling I'm gonna be doing a lot of talking, so need to whip my whistle if you'll bear with me.

No problem.

So uh what I would like to start off with uh before we get into other questions that you all have for me.

I just want to have uh a few moments to go over the annual report that was submitted for your review uh and point out some of the things that the the Allentown Parking Authority has done uh in the previous year.

Uh, we don't really get a lot of an opportunity to speak publicly like this and share the good things that we're doing.

So I'm gonna take the opportunity to do that.

Um I understand you all have had this report already, I assume.

I just want to point out some of 2025's accomplishments.

Um the Allentown Parking Authority purchased a lot and acquired a second lot on the 400 block of Ridge Avenue for development uh to expand surface parking in the area of extreme need that's over on uh Ridge Ave right at Gordon.

Um very dense uh neighborhood, a lot of surface parking need over there.

We do have other surface lots there.

Uh they're all sold out and have waiting lists.

So I'm looking forward to this year excitedly to open that, uh, do a ribbon cutting and provide those residents over there some relief for parking.

Um parking authority was also able to uh track down and remove 132 abandoned vehicles from city streets, uh thus getting them out of the way and opening those spots for others to use.

Um we were very excited to cooperate with the city's traffic and engineering department and create 66 new parking spaces in areas around town that were not previously open for parking.

Um the APA was also working with the county auto theft task force to identify eight stolen vehicles and get them returned to their owners.

Our APA dispatch line answered 17,866 calls uh from a public requesting enforcement service.

The renewed focus on handicap space program uh triggered a review and identified 92 handicapped spaces in town that were no longer needed and were able to be returned to open public use.

Um APA project manager manager is nearing completion of a mapping detail that will identify the number of parking spaces that exist on public streets in Allentown.

We also launched a new payment plan option for individuals to use that have received parking tickets.

We also work with individuals in the arts community and Senator Miller's office to commission a mural that is just about to be started on our spiral deck on the south face.

Those are just some of the highlights of the things that we were doing, and we'll get to some more uh as the evening goes on here.

Uh but I also want to say you know that the good things we're doing don't come without some challenges.

Uh the APA, like most cities and and other organizations, um, have to deal with modernization.

Um we're taking a hard look at some of our parking ordinances to try to bring them up to speed and up to current date.

Uh hopefully at some point soon we'll have something to submit to council for review.

So the APA is looking at what technology options are available to us to help make a better parking system available to the city and to the residents and visitors that come here.

The APA has made strides thanks to some moves that council made for us last 2024.

And those changes have allowed us to come back to a point where we're we're back above water.

So thank you to council for your help in that.

And last but not least, some of the challenges we face are aging parking decks.

A lot of our parking decks are nearing 20 years old.

With one that's 56 years old, that's our spiral deck.

Keeping those decks maintained and in good proper working condition is always a challenge and unfortunately very costly to take care of.

So those are some of the things that we're we're we're dealing with.

Looking into the future, the opportunity our opportunities that we have.

And the hope is to continue to provide parking relief where we can out in our neighborhoods that don't have as as many options to park.

And we put that out for a bid, and the art museum should be bringing us a nice new facility there in the coming years.

Providing as many options as we can.

We have the on-street kiosks, which allow a number of different payment options.

We also have the mobile payment option that's now available.

But we also still have old single space meters sporadically around town too.

So as we move forward into the future, we're looking to bring those extra options to those blocks as well.