Mayor Donna Holaday said this week that the city will have paid parking in all of its municipal parking lots, including the lots run by the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority (NRA), this year. Holaday said she has assembled a task force to report back to her within weeks.

"I thought I was clear - it's underway. It's going to happen," the mayor said, adding that she told the task force they have 12 weeks to come up with a workable plan. "Pay and display" parking kiosks like the one already on the parking lot run by the Newburyport Waterfront Trust (see photo) are "being purchased," she added. The task force, still in its infancy, includes representatives from the City Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the Planning Department, the NRA, the Waterfront Trust and New England Development, the largest commercial property owner in the city.

Some ideas the group will consider are paid parking stickers for retailers and their employees, resident stickers, discount stickers for senior citizens and zones for residential parking only. The amount of fees to be collected have not been determined but the mayor said it will be consistent for all parking lots. Holaday said: "These are some issues we have to resolve."

Ultimately, she wants a reduction of on-street parking, an end to people who work downtown parking and moving their cars throughout the day to avoid a citation  and to curb parking spillover into residential neighborhoods during big events such as the annual Yankee Homecoming celebration. The NRA lots are slated to be incorporated into the existing waterfront park on the Merrimack River. Holaday said she wants to get people used to the idea of paid parking before the NRA parking disappears and a parking garage is built.

To this end, she last week met with U.S. Sen. John Kerry during a trip to Washington, D.C., and with senior members of U.S. Rep. John Tierney's staff to discuss federal funding for an intermodal parking garage in the city. Funds from a 2005 federal earmark were used for a study to select possible sites for a garage and for some of the design but the funding will not pay to build the garage. An intermodal parking garage is one where several forms of transportation come together. The mayor has said she prefers the corner of Titcomb and Merrimac streets as the site for the garage.

City Councillor At-large Ari Herzog, who is joining the task force, said that he is working to fold transportation needs into a discussion of paid parking. Herzog said; "I think the mayor agrees with me that it's important to talk about parking and transportation in the same sentence." Herzog met recently with Planning Director Sean Sullivan and Chamber of Commerce President Ann Ormond to discuss convening a brainstorming round table that includes local transportation providers - bus service providers the Merrimack Valley Regional Transportation Authority and C&J Trailways, the Newburyport Pedicab, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and taxi companies.

Herzog would like to see such a meeting before the summer season begins and all the providers are running at full steam. Herzog said everyone could exchange information about what's working and what's not and how the city can help improve or facilitate transportation services in Newburyport.

Mayor Holaday said she also "shopped" to lawmakers the city getting funds for the proposed park on the waterfront that would replace the NRA parking lots, funding for an enterprise incubator in the city, funds to facilitate clean and sustainable energy and getting the city designated as a U.S. Coast Guard city and recognition as the birthplace of the Coast Guard.

An enterprise incubator is a building in which startup businesses can lease space and share services and facilities with other startups and thus reduce overhead while they are building their business. Read about the Enterprise Center at Salem State College here.