While nothing is official yet, the Owensboro Parking Committee voted in approval Thursday to present the idea for parking kiosks to Owensboro city commissioners at an upcoming meeting in July.
The idea for parking kiosks, or meters, comes from the committee’s belief that not only will more revenue be made from the implementation of meters, but they will also serve as a solution to Owensboro Police Department’s inability to chalk tires — a law enacted in April by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which includes Kentucky.
Director of Public Events Tim Ross said he researched what other cities have done, and that the use of parking kiosks relieves some of the challenges local law enforcement faces with parking and the issuing of tickets.
Parking kiosks range in style, cost effectiveness and method of use, Ross said. Chicago recently made the switch to digitally tracking parking times through residents’ license plates, which can be entered into the meter instead of residents having to walk back to their car and place a meter receipt on their dashboards.
“There’s a whole conglomerate of methods we can use that are out there,” Ross said. “I’ve looked at probably 12 to 14 other cities, and there’s only one or two that offer any kind of free parking, but they’ll do the first 20 minutes free, or the first 30 minutes free — enough time to get a cup of coffee or [drop something off at an] office.”
Ross said there’s enough free parking available in downtown Owensboro, and that the City needs to begin better utilizing those spaces to create revenue.
“Now when they do a concert at the Sportscenter, they bring in an extra $3,000 to $6,000 in revenue in parking,” Ross said. “Whereas if any of us went to Nashville, we’d all expect to pay $10 or $20 to park. Even when you go to Bowling Green and you go to the symphony, you expect to pay $5 to $10 to park.”
The revenue that comes from the parking kiosks will help offset the maintenance costs associated with the downtown parking garages, Ross said.
One of the downfalls of parking kiosks is that downtown employees would have to begin paying to park, as was mentioned during the meeting. Ross said parking kiosks would save time for OPD officers who often battle business owners over parking outside their businesses all day.
“If somebody wants to park all day — great. But you’re going to pay $10 a day if you want to park in front of your business all day. And that saves on the argument that OPD has with business owner A and business owner B over parking tickets,” Ross said.
City Engineer Kevin Collignon said he understands why business owners want to park near their businesses, and their frustration over having to move their cars every couple of hours. However, he said, the parking kiosks could potentially end the parking debacle as the rules will be more easily enforced, and everyone will have to abide by them equally.
Owensboro Times was unable to reach Mayor Tom Watson and City Manager Nate Pagan for comment on the parking committee’s decision regarding parking kiosks.
