Sewickley's four new parking pay stations were up and running this week after setbacks forced the machines offline last week, the borough's parking authority chairman said.
The pay stations — one each in the Division Street and Green Street lots, one adjacent to the Green Street lot and one on Thorn Street near the borough building — were taken offline early last week after borough Manager Kevin Flannery said the borough wanted the manufacturer and service provider to “make the machine work correctly in compliance with their bid.”
Flannery said in a statement the borough had “begun legal process for a swift remedy to this issue with the manufacturer and service provider.”
Old meters at each parking space in the two lots had returned to service.
Tom DeFazio, the parking authority chairman, said he and other borough representatives met with parking systems company PSX on Monday.
Mechanical issues and problems with people not understanding how to use the machines were to blame for the pay stations being taken offline, DeFazio said.
“They're going to be sending us a more detailed schedule of when more machines are coming in,” he said. “There has been a delay and some issues with the ones we have, unfortunately.”
The borough began installing pay stations in December as part of a plan to upgrade parking in the borough. The new, solar-powered pay stations will replace most of the borough's 500 meters. To begin, users first must hit a power button to power on the device.
At some point, once installation is complete, the borough and parking authority plan to increase rates from 25 cents for 30 minutes to 50 cents for 30 minutes. Eight-hour meters will cost $2 per day.
All the pay stations are expected to be in operation March 1, DeFazio said. Earlier plans called for pay stations to be in place this past fall.
Last May, the Sewickley Parking Authority awarded a roughly $422,000 contract to PSX to overhaul the borough's public parking system. The new devices permit payment via credit and debit cards and with quarters and dollar bills.
“Any time new technology is rolled out, there is a combination of factors in play,” PSX representative Scot MacTaggart said last week. “Some people will have difficulty adopting new technology just because it is new. We are trying to discern which complaints are legitimate and which ones are user error.”
Matthew Peaslee is a Tribune-Review contributing writer. Staff writer Bobby Cherry contributed.
