Verizon Wireless will be able to build a cell phone tower on top of the city parking garage after Athens City Council voted yesterday to authorize the 10-year agreement.

Verizon will pay the city $1,700 every month for 10 years to lease seven parking spaces on the top floor of the garage, where the tower will be installed. The city will make more than $200,000 on the agreement during that period.

Councilwoman Bojinka Bishop, D-2nd Ward, was the only objector.The tower gives Verizon a better location and joins another tower already on the garage, Councilman Paul Wiehl, D-1st Ward, said.

Wiehl said the tower installation was not in response to any specific service problem.

Council also moved forward yesterday in the construction process of a new sidewalk for the east side of Stewart Street. Council members unanimously approved a resolution to install a sidewalk from Playground Drive to East Union Street on the east side of Stewart Street.

Construction there could begin as soon as this summer, said Councilwoman Amy Flowers, D-at large.

The city will pay for less than half of the $28,000 construction project, leaving the $16,000 to four property owners. Nearly 70 percent of the length of the new sidewalk belongs to and will be paid for by one property owner. When the project is completed, both sides of Stewart Street will have a sidewalk from Mill Street to East Union Street.

In other news, the approval of another ordinance means parking fines for illegal parking, expired meters and parking-space limits in the city will increase. Violators will have five days instead of two to pay these fines before the fines will increase, however.

“This will fund two additional police officers and add to the general health and safety of our city,” said Councilwoman Nancy Bain, D-3rd Ward. She also said that it is not discriminatory but merely “the cost of not paying attention to detail.”

Council voted to increase fines by $5 for parking at an expired meter; parking in one space for longer than the two- or four-hour limit; or not paying for motorcycle parking permits. The late fee for each of those violations also will increase by $5.

Any other parking violation fine will increase by $10, and late fees for those violations will increase by $10.

Bishop again was the lone opponent of the parking fine increases.