New parking meters offer free lunchtime parking

Carnegie Council has an offer that it thinks motorists won't be able to refuse - free parking.

Council voted Tuesday to provide free lunchtime parking to motorists in the recently reopened East and West Main Street business district.

Details of the free parking time frame still need to be worked out, but borough Manager Richard Sharkey said it most likely will begin at noon and end at 1 p.m., or run from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

'We want to do everything we can to promote the businesses we have in the mall,' said Sharkey.

Sharkey said borough officials toyed with the idea of free lunchtime parking years ago.

'We figured now was the right time to do something like this, with the street opening up,' he said.

One area in the business district already offers free parking. Parking meters in front of the post office on East Main Street give postal customers 10 minutes of free parking.

Right now, 25 cents allows for 1 1/2 hours of parking.

Treshea N. Wade can be reached at twade@tribweb.com or (412) 306-4531.