The Derby Municipal Parking Authority voted last week to hire a contractor to start fixing holes in the aging parking garage on Thompson Place.
The group met Sept. 22 and authorized paying Frank Pepe Construction $4,850 to make the repairs.
Construction crews arrived Tuesday.
The authority did not want to spend more than $5,000 on the work.
The parking garage is in bad shape, having outlived its lifespan, authority member Tony Szewczyk told the Valley Indy.
“It’s obsolete construction ten years past its prime,” he said.
Szewczyk said the Parking Authority is trying to find ways to come up with money to deal with the crumbling garage. Grants are hard to come by. No one wants to ask Derby voters to spend money to make repairs.
“We’re kind of at our wit’s end,” Szewczyk said.
The garage is funded by the authority through meter collections. Authority members are looking for ways to generate more money for repairs. They recently considered installing meters around Griffin Hospital, estimating it could bring in an additional $30,000.
However, that idea isn’t moving forward.
Last week’s decision to repair holes in the garage was a Band Aid.
Minutes from a previous Parking Authority meeting showed 16 craters in the garage. Overall, there is a punch list of 85 items that need repair, authority members said.
At last week’s meeting, Parking Authority Director Leo Moscato brought in chunks of concrete — evidence of the wear and tear on the structure.
“You could just pull them up with your toe. The floor is four inches [thick] and you have two inches out,” Moscato said.
The parking garage was built in 1974 and opened in 1975. It holds 300 vehicles.
In August, 10,000 vehicles used the parking garage.
