The valet parking pilot program downtown was used almost 300 times, prompting the city to extend it permanently starting this past weekend.

The pilot was launched in December, operating on Friday and Saturday nights through January. There were 299 participants in the program, according to Lauren Ferrigno, the city’s public relations coordinator. That works out to an average of 16.6 users per night across the 18 nights that the pilot operated. The $5 fee would have grossed revenue of $1,495 from 299 users.

In a press release dated Feb. 2, the city announced that the valet parking program would become permanent, starting this past Friday. Every Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight, people can drop off their vehicle at the intersection of Main and East Cherry streets (near the Paseo) to have it valeted for $5, cash or credit card, at the Lewis Street Parking Deck a block away.

In a statement, Mayor Raymond Giacobbe, Jr., said the city put the pilot in place “to gauge whether or not visitors would be receptive to taking that first part of their nightlife experience — figuring out where to park — off their hands.”

Going forward, the valet program will be operated in-house, overseen by the Parking Utility on a permanent basis. For the pilot, the valet service was contracted through the city’s Parking Utility, with an estimated cost of about $8,500 a month.

City Administrator Robert Landolfi said in an interview after tonight’s City Council meeting that the cost using the Parking Authority will be considerably less but did not have details immediately available. The pilot had an informal goal of attracting about 40 cars per night, he said, which likely will be a more attainable figure in the warmer months although it still won’t cover costs. “It’s a good service that is worth the expenditure,” Landolfi said, and isn’t meant to be a money maker.

Last fall, the city unveiled a comprehensive parking plan for downtown, which came out of a parking study authorized by the former Parking Authority, The study was one of the final acts by the autonomous Parking Authority before it was dissolved, with oversight shifted to a Parking Utility within City Hall.

The new parking regulations instituted last fall included 29 new pay stations downtown and approximately 150 on-street spaces for metered parking. Three municipal lots with a total 164 spaces are free from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.