Red Bank Expecting New Parking System [POLL]

If anything’s enough to turn visitors off to Red Bank it’s the parking, and every offensive adjective that goes along with it.

While the borough isn’t doing away with metered parking or any one of those thousands of rage-inducing $38 tickets that seem to pop up almost instantaneously when a meter runs out, they are trying to make the proposition of paying for parking a bit easier.

At its Wednesday night, Red Bank approved a contract with Connecticut-based Integrated Technical Systems, Inc., to outfit at least some municipal lots initially with brand new parking kiosks that provide multiple and more customer-friendly ways of paying for parking.

Council President Art Murphy said the new kiosks will not only accept coins and bills, but paycards, and credit cards, too. The system will also allow visitors to make payments on their cell phones. “It gives so many more options to pay instead of having to run out (to feed the meter),” he said.

The approval of the resolution is the first step in a process that borough Business Administrator Stanley Sickles said could take as little as six months to see the first installation of the new kiosk. Immediate plans are to study where and how best to integrate the new parking system.

Each kiosk will cost just under $12,000, though the borough hasn’t determined how many it’s going to buy just yet. Sickles said implementing the new system requires ripping out the old coin meters, providing proper signage, and training borough employees in how the new technology works. It’s likely that the kiosks will appear at one or two municipal lots first and then spread out to others and even to street parking, Sickles said, if they work out on first runs.

Murphy said the kiosk system is similar to one being used in Asbury Park.

Parking has been a hot issue for Red Bank. Complaints have been who allege that the borough’s meter maids are too heavy handed when it comes to handing out parking tickets – . Conversely, the borough has come to rely on the income generated from its meters to help balance its budget. Last year alone. That total does not include fees related to parking tickets.

Nancy Adams, executive director of the Red Bank RiverCenter, applauded the forthcoming change in the parking system.

“We’ve heard frustrations on the part of customers and visitors over parking,” she said. “This will go a long way to reversing the image that Red Bank has.”

Mayor Pat Menna said the new system kick starts Red Bank into the new century, when it comes to parking at least.