The kiosks are on their way

By ROBERT LINNEHAN

They’ll soon be popping up on a street or a parking lot near you. The commissioners approved a measure in late July to bring in an initial 15 parking meter kiosks to be installed along Tanner Street and a parking lot as a trial run for the borough.

Commissioner Jeff Kasko said the commissioners agreed to spend more than $152,000 on the kiosks. They will be installed along Tanner Street, which currently do not have parking meters.

If they are found to be successful, they could replace all of the parking meters in the borough in the future. Drivers that park along a street with the kiosks feed the automated meters and choose how long they will park on the street for. The kiosks print out a slip of paper that the drivers take and put on the dashboard of their vehicle.

Based on discussions with police representatives and parking authority employees from nearby towns that employ the kiosks — such as Collingswood — Commissioner Ed Borden previous said that the borough expects to increase the amount of money coming in through parking fees fairly quickly. An estimate as to how much the parking funding will increase can’t be calculated, Borden said.

One kiosk will be installed for every seven parking spaces. The kiosks are typically about four to five feet tall.

Not everyone is thrilled with the prospect of the kiosks replacing the parking meters. Several residents in past meetings have expressed their concerns with how the kiosks will look on borough streets.

Several senior citizens have also expressed concern over having to walk to a kiosk along the street to print out a parking slip to place on their car dashboard.