The price to park a car in the Village of Babylon is doubling next week.

Right now, 25 cents give drivers two hours of parking on the street.

Starting Monday, it will cost 50 cents for two hours.

"It really hurts us all, let's put it that way," said Chet Kowalski, who is from North Babylon and loves to grab lunch in the village. "I think the businesses are going to suffer the most"

Village officials said it's the first increase since 1999.

"Everything is going up, up, up, except our paychecks," said Marianna Ruffo, who was meeting her cousins for a bite on Friday.

Brian Kuntz, who lives in the village, said the increase is not bad.

"Fifty cents for two hours is a steal and everywhere else, they are paying twice that," Kuntz said.

"Meters are here to protect the businesses" said Jim Wichert, who owns Unique Golf, which has been located on Main Street for almost three decades.

Wichert said the price of parking is reasonable and keeps someone from parking their car in front of his store all day.

Village Mayor Mary Adams said the village is still recovering financially from the pandemic.

"That extra quarter is going to help replenish the funds that we lost here," Adams explained.

Adams said there are about 500 parking meters in the village and they hope to make about $100,000 with that extra quarter.

Adams said that would bring in a total of $700,000 to $800,000 a year and some of the money will go toward creating a Saturday night code enforcement shift.