Politics & Government
Time Has Run Out on Kaput Parking Meters in Downtown Athens
New parking meters will be coming to downtown Athens, so keep your change close at hand.
The salad days are over for those who park downtown. No more meters that are just shells of their former selves. No more meters stuck on an hour.
The Athens Downtown Development Authority voted to ask the county to buy 515 new meters, for roughly $250,000. These are state-of-the-art devices, able to take coins, folding money and credit cards.
Parking director Chuck Horton has been salvaging parts of old meters and cobbling them together with existing poles, “just so we have something.” It frustrated him that downtown had 60 broken meters, which translated into a monthly loss of $9,000.
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Because they accept credit cards, the new meters come with an annual service fee of $30,000.
At the June ADDA meeting, the board heard about and seemed to endorse the use of sensors, which could detect when a car left a parking space and could set the meter back to zero. This system would have meant more money for parking services—as much as $30,000 annually.
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“People didn’t like the idea of sensors,” said Horton. “Right now, I’m just focused on new meters.”
One unresolved issue is whether to boot or not to boot. Horton said the county attorney asked the ADDA to stop booting while he studied the issue. There’s been no ruling about whether Horton and his staff can return to booting cars whose owners owe huge, cumulative parking feesGet more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
