Spooky Stroudsburg runs from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 31. Meters in the downtown core have a three-hour limit. Saturday is a metered day in Stroudsburg Borough, and the garage at Ann and South 6th, the usual place for a long stay downtown, is still closed for repairs.
If you plan to stay through the whole afternoon, the spot you pick when you pull in decides how the day goes. This post covers where the borough's open lots are, how the meter rules work, and what the garage schedule really says with less than three weeks of construction left.
The garage is close to done, but no reopening date has been announced
Here is the borough's notice, still posted on the Stroudsburg Borough homepage:
Parking Lot #2 is temporarily closed due to safety concerns. Parking Permit holders may park at any metered space within the Borough. Please have your parking permit visible or you will receive a ticket!
Repair and rehabilitation work started April 29. In the borough's September 1, 2026 council minutes, a change order had pushed completion to "early November," and the engineer's report gave a November 2 project deadline. November 2 is the Monday after Halloween. The latest official update is the October 6 council agenda. It lists Payment Request #4 from D&M Construction, $254,285.61 for garage repairs through September 22, and it does not set a reopening date.
Even if the work meets that November 2 deadline, the deadline falls two days after Spooky Stroudsburg, and the borough has not announced when the garage will reopen. Plan both Halloween weekend trips downtown without it, and check the homepage notice before you count on the garage for early holiday shopping.
Five hours of Halloween, three hours on the meter
The Downtown Stroudsburg Business Association hosts Spooky Stroudsburg. It's free, and the association promises decorated storefronts and family-friendly activities. The listing gives 700 Sarah Street as the address, and the association's events page is where more details will appear.
Now compare those hours to the borough's parking rules:
- Meters run Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays and the legal holidays listed in Borough Code Chapter 15 are free, but all other parking rules still apply on those days.
- Downtown core meters cost $1 an hour with a 3-hour limit. Staying on the same block past three hours can bring a $30 violation.
- Most meters outside the core cost $0.50 an hour.
- An expired meter can be ticketed every three hours. An expired-meter ticket is $20 if paid in full within 7 calendar days.
So Spooky Stroudsburg falls entirely inside paid hours, and the meters stop at the same time the event does. If you park at a core meter at 1 p.m. and stay to the end, you've run two hours past the limit. Feeding the meter more coins doesn't help. The rule is about staying on the same block, so the fix is to move the car or park somewhere else from the start.
Where the open lots are
With Lot #2 closed, these are the borough lots listed in the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau's Stroudsburg visitor guide and on the borough's municipal permit sheet, from closest to the Main Street action:
- Lot #3, 719 Main Street, between Main Street and Bank Alley. 35 metered spaces. Its pay station takes credit and debit cards at $1 an hour.
- Lot #5, along the 700 block between Bank Alley and Ann Street. 21 metered spaces.
- Lot #4, at Sarah and 5th Streets.
- Lot #6, on the south side of the 300/400 block, just before Aaron's.
Lots #3 and #5 together hold 56 metered spaces, which is a small number for a free event that fills the downtown blocks on a Saturday afternoon. When the garage is open, its upper level alone has 43 metered spaces, so its closure takes away a lot of the long-stay parking within walking distance of Main Street. Lots #4 and #6 are a longer walk from the 700 block of Main, and that walk is the price of a quieter lot.
Paying without a pocket full of quarters
The borough's parking page says meters accept quarters only when you pay with coins. The visitor guide says quarters and dimes, so go by the instructions posted on the meter in front of you.
The easier option is mPay2Park, which the borough accepts for every meter and lot it runs. The app adds a user fee. The borough is also installing smart meters that take credit and debit cards, and so far they're on the 600 and 700 blocks of Main Street and on North 7th Street. Lot #2 permit holders aren't stuck either. Under the closure notice, they can use any metered space in the borough as long as the permit is visible.
If you do get a ticket, you can pay it at the Parking Office on the second floor of the firehouse at Sarah and North 7th Streets, open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also use the drop box outside the Municipal Building, mail it, or pay online with a user fee.
The weekend before has its own Halloween night
Spooky Stroudsburg isn't the only Halloween event downtown. In the September 1 minutes, the borough noted that Jessica Delfino was organizing a Witches Walk for Friday, October 23, in the Ann Street Parking Lot, with more details to come. The minutes give no start time. If it starts in the evening, the 6 p.m. meter cutoff works in your favor.
Trick-or-treat hours in the borough were still on the October 6 agenda as an item to set, so watch the borough homepage for the time council chose.
Main Street parking after November
Holiday shoppers hoping for free-parking days downtown this season shouldn't expect a special program. At the July 7 council meeting, Downtown Manager Moreno recommended that the Parking Committee send a list of observed holidays to the Codes Committee for review, so that holidays with free parking are set and posted every January. For this year, the dependable free days are Sundays and the legal holidays already in Chapter 15.
The street itself is also on council's agenda. The October 6 agenda included asking the borough engineer to contact PennDOT and start the process of lowering the Main Street speed limit. It also included advertising a November 17, 2026 public hearing on an ordinance that would move every property in the C-1A General Commercial A district into the C-2 Central Business Commercial district and eliminate C-1A. Both were listed for consideration, not as final actions. The Transforming Main Street initiative has a signed engineering contract with an effective start date of August 24, 2026, and its kickoff meeting was scheduled for September 2. The state agency DCED granted a one-year extension for the Quick Build/Main Street project, and the borough plans to ask for another extension through fall 2027.
For Halloween, park at the Lot #3 pay station or one of the farther lots, and save the core meters for quick stops. The garage project's deadline is November 2, but the reopening date will come from the notice on the borough homepage.
If spending this much time on parking has you thinking about how close to Courthouse Square you'd like to live, I'm happy to walk those blocks with you and talk about which streets work for you. Kacey Conaty can help you find a Stroudsburg address where a downtown Saturday doesn't start with hunting for a parking spot. Contact Kacey to Start Your Pocono Search.
