Changes may eventually come to Jim Thorpe Borough’s permit parking ordinance, which took effect earlier this year, but council members said Thursday night they’d like to see how things play out in the upcoming months before rushing to action.

The ordinance allows residents of Broadway, West Broadway, High Street, Race Street, Hill Road and Quarry Street to purchase an annual permit for $15 that grants them a chance to park from 5-415 W. Broadway or anywhere on High Street without receiving a ticket. Motorists who do not have a permit and park in those areas are subject to a $50 fine.

Victor Stabin, a Jim Thorpe artist who runs the Stabin Museum at 268 W. Broadway, said the ordinance has created a stretch of about 15 parking spaces that go unused. He asked council Thursday night to open them back up for use by anyone.

“I live on the block and watch it day to day,” Stabin said. “Every resident has a spot and I’m glad they do, but someone has to flip a switch and let people park where they used to park all the time and nobody else is parking now.”

Though Stabin has off-street parking for the museum, he said there have been times when the on-street spaces would have been useful.

“I have a commercial building and it’s not rocking as far as people filling up my parking lot, but there are a couple of nights when we’ve had a need for parking on the street,” Stabin said. “It doesn’t really seem like there should be a problem with it because there is nobody there.”

Council President Greg Strubinger said the governing body acknowledges the ordinance is still new and may need some tweaks, but not just yet. Others in the borough agree it may be too early to make major changes.

“I think you should wait and see what happens during the summer months,” Police Chief Joe Schatz told council. “Right now we’re still in that winter period and it’s pretty quiet, but summer will tell the tale of parking enforcement and what spots will be open. I can tell you that the residents are happy because if you live there, there is parking now.”

One of those residents is Jim Gilmore, who lives on West Broadway.

Since the new ordinance was put in effect, he and his neighbors said they can leave in the middle of the day and still be able to park somewhere near their residence when they get home.

“We need to give it more time,” he said. “Nobody from the business community has come to those of us who live there and said, how can we work this out?”

Mayor Mike Sofranko said other tourist destinations, such as beach towns in New Jersey, usually relax parking rules in nonpeak seasons.

“They look at the peaks and valleys,” Sofranko said. “In Cape May, come the winter you can park a lot of places for free that you can’t in the summer. You may eventually see relaxed regulations here, but council won’t know days or months are lighter here until they go through the process of studying it. It used to just be the Fall Foliage Festival and Olde Time Christmas. Now we have a lot more events, something I think is absolutely wonderful, but let’s see how this all plays out.”

The permit parking ordinance is in effect 24 hours per day although Michael Rivkin of the Jim Thorpe Tourism Agency submitted a letter to council reiterating the organization’s request evenings, on weekends and federal holidays. That, Rivkin said, would allow for business customers and employees to utilize some of those spaces during the day on weekdays.

Rivkin also asked council to consider an alternative to picking up guest parking permits in-person at the borough office, particularly on weekends and holidays when the office is closed.

“Maybe there is a way residents can apply for the guest passes ahead of time and they can be emailed so people can print them at home,” Rivkin said.

Following several of the comments Thursday night, Strubinger said the borough is listening to all of the feedback and taking them into consideration.

“Before we jump on changing anything,” he said, “we want to be absolutely clear what some of the issues are.”