WARREN — The director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments expressed doubts the parking study it is doing for the city of Warren will answer questions about reducing the operational cost of the downtown parking deck and patroling the parking lots in the downtown area.

Ken Simpson, director of transportation for Eastgate, said the organization did a long range 40-year parking study a decade ago for Youngstown, Youngstown State University and Warren.

This year and into next year, Eastgate is updating those 2010 parking studies. Information already has been updated for Youngstown and YSU, while a study of parking in Warren is expected sometime in the next six months.

However, Simpson said, their survey is expected only to study parking patterns over a short period of time, maybe two to three days.

“It will be a snapshot of parking patterns,” he said.

Safety Service Director Enzo Cantalamessa emphasized the city wants to use all available information it can collect to determine how best to improve parking in the city’s downtown business district and the city’s Franklin Street Parking deck. The administration wants to wait until the Eastgate parking study is completed before doing a contract for the next parking contract.

The city’s 16-month contract with Warren Parking Systems is expected to end in December. The city then will work with the company on a month-to-month basis until a new contract proposal is out for bid.