Workers had installed curbs at the Maple Cove parking area by midday Friday, and plan to repave it. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Free parking may soon be a thing of the past at Maple Cove, Red Bank’s popular free launch for kayaks, canoes and rowing shells.

The borough, which is repaving a parking area at the site, may reinstate permit parking there, borough Administrator Stanley Sickels tells redbankgreen.

The lot had fallen into disrepair in recent years, with pavement cracking and buckling up in certain areas, Sickles said, and somewhere along the way, signs that noted a parking permit was required at the lot came down. Because of that, he said enforcement was relaxed and visitors to the foot of Maple Avenue have gotten away with free parking.

“They’ve got to pave first, and then we’ve got to decide if we’re going to put the signs back up,” he said.

The Maple Cove lot is one of the last on the borough’s list of streets and lots to be resurfaced under a program in last year’s budget, Engineer Christine Ballard said.

Other roads include Chestnut, Cedar, Park and Catherine streets, and Central Avenue, she said.

The borough will maintain the lot’s size and install one handicapped spot, Ballard said. She didn’t immediately have the total number of spots.

It’s unknown if and when the borough will make a decision on whether to reinstate the permit parking requirement.

“The main thing is just to get that repaved and safe right now,” Sickels said.