FORT SMITH -- City directors are considering buying new parking meters for downtown that provide some 21st century alternatives to plugging a meter with quarters.
Seth Ward III, president of POM Inc., addressed city directors during a study session Tuesday and briefed them on the Parktel 2.0 solar smart meter, which would accept payment by credit card, debit card, prepaid card, cellphone app and quarters.
The 435 parking meters currently used in downtown Fort Smith are POM meters, and many are decades old. Ward said some are mechanical meters with a crank on the back that has to be twisted to activate them.
He said he looked forward to the opportunity to upgrade Fort Smith's meters.
"Every meter we've made since 1965, including the meters in Fort Smith, have been made by your fellow Arkansans and actually right here in the River Valley in Russellville," Ward told directors.
There is no time set for when city directors will vote on a contract to add the new meters, Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said. POM and the city still have to determine how many meters of what type will be needed and at what cost. That could take a month to six weeks, Dingman said.
Dingman told directors that the cost will range from $285,000 to $380,000 depending on the mix of meters. Many meters will be able to accept the new meter equipment into existing housings, which would cut the cost, Dingman said, from $875 per meter to $654.
Also, meters on side streets where there is parallel parking may get double space meters, which would mean that one meter could handle two parking spaces.
The wireless technology to communicate with the meters and conduct credit/debit transactions would be administered through POM at a cost of $5 per meter per month. A memo by Dingman said the fee at that rate would total $2,175 a month for 435 meters.
There also would be a 10-cent credit card fee, for which POM would bill the city, the memo said.
The cost of the meters would come from the city's parking fund, which is generated by parking fees and fines and which currently has a balance of more than $419,000.
City directors passed an ordinance in February doubling the meter fee from 25 cents to 50 cents for an hour of time on the meters on Garrison Avenue. For meters on side streets, the rate went from 25 cents for an hour to 25 cents for 40 minutes. The increased rates -- the first in 32 years -- are expected to generate more than $200,000 in meter fees next year.
Fines also were doubled from the initial fine of $5 to $10.
POM was one of six companies to submit proposals to the city for parking meters and was one of two finalists. It sells its meters all around the country. The company's website shows it has made sales in places such as Fort Myers Beach, Fla.; Westfield, N.J.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and most recently in Milwaukee, Wis.
Arkansas is a rural state where few cities have meters, Ward said. Other than in Fort Smith, the company has sold 110 of its meters in 2015 or 2016 to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. It has just started a pilot program in Little Rock with 14 two-space meters that Ward said he hopes will result in more sales.
The Parktel 2.0 solar smart meter was first developed in 2012 and went on the market in 2014 in Valley Stream, N.Y., Ward said.
State Desk on 12/17/2018