Now that contractors have begun improvement plans in Auburn's downtown, City Manager Mark Palesh suggested the Auburn City Council consider replacing parking meters with kiosks in certain areas.

“I'm not someone who wants to do a project just to go back a year later and rip it out,” Palesh said. “The first thing out of taxpayers' mouths is why didn't you do that in the first place.”

For $90,000, the city can purchase 10 kiosks. For each kiosk, the city could remove nine or 10 meters from the curb.

During a discussion last week, councilor Thomas McNabb voiced some concern about the idea of spending that amount of money to replace meters that function properly.

Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta reminded council that if they did decide to order the kiosks, city employees could then replace older models with the surplus devises.

Tony Piccolo, president of Auburn Downtown Business Improvement District, said he supported the concept but would broach the subject Wednesday to the whole BID membership.

“I think we should go forward with it. It would clean up downtown,” Piccolo said.

Mayor Timothy Lattimore said people with mobility issues may have problems putting money in kiosks and going back to their vehicles to put the ticket there. However, the kiosks would allow for easier maintenance, he added.

Both Piccolo and Giannotta said residents and customers find the city's only parking kiosk on State Street easy to use.

Unlike the State Street device, the new meters would not be specific to spaces. This means for the time paid for, a driver could move their car to any space covered by a kiosk using their original ticket, Giannotta said. The State Street kiosk was an experiment that taught the city parking by space didn't work out, he added.

The new kiosks would be a pay and display model.

“The executive committee is 100 percent behind this,” Piccolo added. “The timing is right. No one likes meters. They are so ugly.”

Time is an important factor in the idea. If council agreed to buy the kiosks, it would take three months for them to arrive, and that would be after a bid process, Giannotta said.

The construction crews could temporarily fix the solutions with the curbs until they receive the kiosks and could remove the meters, he added.

The city needs a pay-for-parking system to ensure turnover in the spots, Giannotta said.

Many business owners and workers leave their cars in spaces during the days. Meters encourage people to open up spaces for customers and clients.

“It's not a money issue. That's paramount... If there were no meters, there would be no places to park,” Giannotta said.

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311, ext 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net