It seems you can never find change when you need it. Now you won’t have to.
Following the success of Cocoa Beach’s implementation of electronic parking kiosks that replaced the aged, traditional coin meters, the town of Indialantic hopes to have its own kiosk system in place soon.
The Indialantic Town Council chose Nance Park as the initial site for two new electronic kiosks. If the project proves successful, they plan to update other locations throughout town in phases.
The estimated cost for the entire system is $140,000.
Indialantic Mayor Dave Berkman says the idea was first addressed several years ago, but at the time officials didn’t feel confident in the technology and durability.
“Since then Cocoa Beach has been through several years of trials and we are purchasing the same systems. They have proven to work well,” Berkman said. “Our current coin-operated meters have seen their day and don’t support any payment methods besides coins. These new ones will be cash, coin, credit card or app payment.”
Cocoa Beach paid approximately $300,000 to IPS Group for 60 active meters covering 1,327 spaces in the city.
Lori Wnek, the parking account administrator for Cocoa Beach, says the city is pleased with the kiosks and they plan to add more.
“Due to these new meters taking credit card payments, our revenues increased significantly,” Wnek said. “Roughly 92 percent of our sales are credit card sales. This reduces our costs for collecting and counting coins and making coin deposits.”
The town council approved raising the meter fee 25 cents to help raise funds for the project, from $1 to $1.25 per hour. A second public hearing will be held on the increase in August.
Cocoa Beach currently charges $2.50 per hour for parking.
“The benefit is a much friendlier and current way to collect parking cost without running back and forth to deposit quarters every two hours,” Berkman said. “I should also note that this project will be no cost to Indialantic tax payers.”
As manager of the Original Bizzarro Famous New York Pizza, which is located adjacent to Nance Park, Angelo Bizzarro is happy about the new kiosks, but also a little concerned that salt water may have a negative effect on the machines.
“Our feeling at the Original Bizzarro is that the kiosk machine would be a great idea; however, with that being said, there are concerns such as the maintenance on them,” Bizzarro said. “Will the salt water affect the machine and card skimmers? We surely think that the town is capable of doing this and it will serve great in the community.”
Wnek says Cocoa Beach took maintenance issues into consideration.
“When the city was looking for new meters they specifically choose meters that were as weather resistant as possible,” Wnek said.
“I can’t say that we don’t have any issues with salt or sand, but the issues are more cosmetic.”
Article by: Jennifer Torres, correspondent
