City parking meters being ‘recalibrated’
Butler city is in the process of certifying parking meters, after their required state certification expired sometime after the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Jimmy Chiprean, the city’s parking manager, said he had recently received credentials through the state to certify parking meters, and has been working his way through the city checking the meters.
“We've been moving along pretty fast,” Chiprean said. “This week we should be able to crank out most of them.”
A Pennsylvania statute established in 1998 and amended most recently in 2012, requires municipal parking meters to be “inspected and tested to ascertain if they are correct” every five years.
Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy said he is unsure of when the meters were last inspected, but the city had four staff members certified to check them.
Additionally, city administrators instructed meter monitors to be more lenient when writing tickets since they were notified that the meters needed to be re-certified, according to Dandoy.
“Nobody likes to get a ticket,” Dandoy said. “We've had complaints recently, but no more or less than any time previous to this.”
Butler’s parking meters charge drivers quarters to park their vehicles on public streets and in public parking lots and garages. People also can purchase parking passes, or pay via the Pango parking phone application.
Dandoy said city administrators have been considering replacing the parking meters throughout the city with digital kiosks used for parking payment. The city has more than 500 meters.
Chiprean said the COVID-19 pandemic and the consideration of changing the parking meters to digital kiosks is what led to the certifications going unchecked.
