John Bays Begins Restoring, Painting Scott Street Parking Deck

JOLIET, IL — Just days after acquiring the deed to the city of Joliet's Scott Street Parking Deck, businessman John Bays assembled a large crew of his company's employees to get to work. On Monday, Bays and his workers were busy power washing, fixing cracks and preparing the parking deck for a much-needed paint job.

The parking stall lines inside the deck are also being repainted, Bays said.

This past weekend, Bays said his workers removed five dump truck loads of trees and overgrown shrubs around the perimeter of the Scott Street Parking Deck.

This week, weather permitting, Bays will have his crews repaint the entire parking deck. The new paint color will be an oatmeal cream, a color Bays said he uses for many of his Joliet buildings.

Last month, Joliet sold Bays the downtown parking deck after coming to the realization that the city did not have the funds to make the much-needed repairs to the parking garage that has about 360 parking stalls.

Bays paid the city about $150,000 to acquire the parking garage, and he expects to make more than $1 million in improvements to the deck during the next several weeks.

Bays had a message for Joliet and Will County residents who use the Scott Street parking deck.

"I have no plans at all to at raising the price," Bays said. "I just want to make this a nice, clean and safe place to park. We're really happy to have the deck."

On Monday, Bays said he had between nine and 15 workers constantly coming and going. He said that repairing the parking deck will be one of his top priority projects for the rest of this summer.

"I think the city, they will be happy that they made this decision," he said. "As you can see, we didn't waste any time. Thirty days from now, it won't even look like the same deck."

Bays also wanted people to know that he has ordered the technology and equipment to make the parking garage fully automated. In the coming weeks, the garage will be able to accept cash and credit cards, he said.

Under the city's ownership, people could only pay cash at the exit window.

"And it's going to be cameras everywhere," Bays said. "If someone is in here throwing trash, they will be barred."