The Decatur City Commission voted Monday to approve a plan to upgrade parking meters and make changes leaders hope will pay-to-park less of a hassle.
The project, for which the city has budgeted $315,000 — down from an initial projection of $500,000 — means the installation of meters that can take credit and debit cards, in addition to coins.
What's more, Standard Parking Corp. the Chicago company the city contracted to install the meters, said in the cases of multi-space meters, the purchased time goes with the license plate, not the space.
That means someone who purchased an hour of time at one of those meters, but only used 20 minutes, could "take" the other 40 minutes to another meter in town. (The company said that feature isn't standard on single-space meters; any unused time could be utilized by the next person to take the space.)
Users also can pay for additional time using their mobile phones or receive texts alerting them when their time is near expiring.
Decatur plans to embark on an education campaign go let residents, visitors and business owners know about the new meters.
The instillation, which is expected to last six weeks, is slated t begin in mid-February.
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