Mayor Nancy Merse said NY Waterway, the operator of the ferry, said that it may raise its fare by 50 cents as a floating oil cost increase. Councilman Denis Gallagher asked if they should expect the fare to continue to rise and Councilwoman Neda Rose said that with fuel costs reaching a 30-year high there are probably going to be increases in a lot of places.

"You see it in your gas tanks," she said.

Councilwoman Beatrice Robbio said New York City recently announced that it would subsidize a private ferry company to keep it open to give commuters some relief. So she suggested maybe NY Waterway would be able to get that some support from New Jersey, Bergen County, or possibly even New York City.

Police Capt. Joe Klimaszewski that some of the municipal lots aren’t usually used to capacity. In particular he said that of the 78 spots in the lot across River Road from Borough Hall on Hilliard Avenue about 45 are usually empty.

But even when cars do park there the borough isn’t always getting money, he said. The lot has a centralized pay console that has been broken for a while. The console is about 7 years old and usually right after technicians from the Philadelphia-based company drives up to fix it the machine breaks again, Klimaszewski said.

He said the police department tries a lot of trouble shooting over the phone but something needs to be done with it in addition to figuring out how to better utilize the spaces.

The lot is metered during the day time but Gallagher said that since borough emergency vehicles are sometimes stored in the lot and it’s behind the Ambulance Corps residents may not realize it’s open for parking.

Merse said the borough can also look at other uses for the unused spots. She said Whole Foods Market, which is next door, once offered to pay for spots for its employees to free up space in its own lot for customers.

"If there’s 45 open spots maybe we can auction off half of them," Merse said.

Another possibility she suggested was offering them for rent to residents who will be out of town and need to move their cars off the street.

Klimaszewski said if they can find a plan that helps residents then that’s good but right now the lot just isn’t being cost-effective. He said when the console is working it brings in good money.

"It can pay for itself," Merse said.

The council recommended that Klimaszewski see if it’s time to replace the console and to also find out how much a second would cost. Borough Administrator Gregory Franz suggested that if the borough continues using the central console then it might be good to have a second one as a backup or to also make the consoles more visible with different locations in the lot.

Klimaszewski said that individual parking meters can cost about $200 each so the console is probably a better choice if it can be used effectively.

The Council also discussed prohibiting political signs on poles or trees in town and having police be more vigilant about signs being stolen in the days before an election.

Robbio also asked about what happened to money from building permits that was supposed to be used to update the borough’s tax map. Borough Attorney Philip Boggia said the $500 fees were used to update individual tax maps, but Robbio said it was supposed to be used for a larger scale update, which an engineer told her hasn’t been done in several years.

Robbio has brought the issue up at other meetings and Merse and Boggia maintained that the money was used properly.

During the public portion resident Michael Trachtenberg asked about the occupancy status of the Marina and how it will do financially. Franz said the South basin, which has more than 40 spaces, was completely rented out and the North basis, which is slightly smaller, has a waiting list already.