One week after local residents and business employees asked Jim Thorpe borough to reconsider its plan to raise parking meter fees by $1 per hour during the week and $2 on weekends, council voted Thursday night to cut the hike in half.

On a 4-3 vote, council voted to advertise an ordinance amendment that ups the cash parking fees from $1 to $1.50 per hour Monday through Thursday and from $1 to $2 per hour Friday through Sunday and on holidays.

“We heard some good comments last week,” Council President Greg Strubinger said. “We haven’t increased the parking cost in five years. There was a consensus at the February workshop meeting that there should be some movement there. This is what the police committee came up with.”

Voting in favor of advertising the ordinance with those per hour prices were Strubinger, Sydney Wernett, Connor Rodgers and Joanne Klitsch. Mike Yeastedt, Tom Chapman and Ted LaRizzio voted no.

The cost for parking at a metered space is slightly higher if someone is paying by credit card. In that case, the price jumps to $2 per hour Monday-Friday and $2.50 per hour Friday-Sunday.

Downtown resident and business owner Jim Pompa asked council before the vote to consider limiting the price hike.

“I don’t think $2 per hour is a stretch, but $3 per hour is,” Pompa said. “It would impact all of us who live down there all year round.”

Council also backed off an increase in meter hours. Last month, it discussed changing the meter hours from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The ordinance which will be advertised, however, will include only a one hour increase in the evening, taking enforcement hours to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“I think 8-8 was a little long,” former Councilman Robert Schaninger told the governing body prior to the vote. “You have to think about the people who live in the apartments above those buildings downtown.”

Pompa said extending the enforcement by four hours would have cost people an extra $68 per week if paying by cash or $82 per week if paying by credit card.

The ordinance amendment, which council plans to make a final vote on in April, will not include a plan for borough-wide residential permit parking.

Council had pitched the idea for a program that will prohibit non-borough residents from parking in any non-kiosk spaces Friday-Sunday from May 15-Dec. 31 each year.

The move, council said, is aimed at keeping spaces in front of homes in residential neighborhoods from being parked up by tourists. Residents would get a permit, at no cost, to hang in their vehicle.

Last week, residents told council they didn’t feel the move was warranted.

“That will not be part of this ordinance amendment as we feel we need some more discussion on that,” Strubinger said Thursday.