West New Castle Street will reopen soon to two-way traffic, and its long-term future likely will be determined at Butler City Council in October.

The 100 block of West New Castle Street, between Main and Jackson streets, served as a public plaza this summer, hosting concerts and other events. Now, the city council must decide how best to use the street after this winter.

Council members on Tuesday night discussed opening the plaza seasonally, between Memorial Day and the Butler Fall Festival in late September, and redesigning the 100 block of West New Castle Street to carry one-way traffic away from Main Street the rest of the year.

“Removal of the traffic light (at New Castle and Main streets this month) allows us to have the plaza back in place next season,” said Mayor Maggie Stock.

Under the city’s agreement with the state Department of Transportation — necessary because Main Street also is a state highway — West New Castle Street must reopen to two-way traffic now that the 90-day trial closure has ended, though no specific date has been set. When the street is reopened, a stop sign will control traffic entering Main Street and no left turn onto Main Street will be permitted.

City engineer Joe Gray appeared before city council on Tuesday with two options for West New Castle Street when spring rolls around: vacate the street and make it a public plaza permanently, or make it a one-way street with the plaza open seasonally as described above.

The option to create a permanent plaza is prohibitive because of cost, legal and logistical issues.

Closing the street would eliminate 10 parking spaces, while extending the curb to cover West New Castle Street’s intersection with Main Street would create just four parking spaces. The estimated cost of such a conversion is estimated at about $80,000, Gray said.

Also, vacating the street would revert the property to the center line back to the building owners, not the city.

If the city were to condemn the street and change it to a park, it could be held responsible for damages to area businesses that claim business losses due to the street closing, said James Coulter, city solicitor.

“(Closing West New Castle Street permanently), I don’t think should be considered,” he said.

The second option of converting West New Castle Street to one-way traffic for vehicles turning from Main Street onto New Castle Street, is more cost-effective, creates more parking and is more likely to be supported by nearby businesses.

That option was discussed initially as creating one-way traffic the other way, entering Main Street.

“There is no good alternative, though, that has traffic entering Main Street from New Castle Street,” Gray said.

“It would be the only street in the city with traffic entering Main Street with no traffic light and would create a dangerous situation.”

So, traffic would exit Main Street onto West New Castle Street, while the unused lane would be converted to 11 parking spaces, adding an extra spot to the 10 spaces currently on that stretch of West New Castle Street.

Gray suggested trying a kiosk-based parking system for those 11 spaces, the type of system where parking is prepaid at a machine, which then dispenses a ticket the driver must place on his dash.

“This would be a great trial run for that type of system,” he said.

Also, the cost of such a conversion is estimated at about $67,000, a high estimate, Gray said, which includes labor costs and about a 15 percent buffer.

“We definitely could do a lot of that work in-house,” said city Councilman Richard Schontz Jr., referring to concrete work, line painting and sign installation that would be a part of changing the street to one-way.

For now West New Castle Street will revert to two-way traffic over the winter, since a permit from PennDOT is required to alter the street and will take several months to process, Stock said.

The city council plans to vote in October on the street’s fate after it has had time to consult with Main Street manager Chelynne Curci, who is out of town, and get written approval on the plan from business owners surrounding the plaza, clearing the city of any liability in possible business losses due to changes to West New Castle Street.