ZELIENOPLE — The borough is considering changes to how it handles parking.

Borough council voted Monday night to write an ordinance that would remove parking meters from the parking lot behind the municipal building.

The lot, which can be accessed from either West New Castle Street or North Clay Street, has 24 metered spaces.

However, the borough doesn’t get much money from those meters because most of the spaces are occupied by borough employees or police cars, which don’t pay to park, said Police Chief Jim Miller.

Under a new ordinance, all but five of the spaces would be reserved for borough employees from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. The remaining five spaces would be leased at a suggested cost of $50 per month.

Visitors to the borough building would no longer be able to park in the rear lot, though there are five metered spaces on West New Castle Street that are usually available as well as free parking on North Clay Street, Miller said.

The new ordinance also would prohibit parking in the lot between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. because of snow removal, though all other hours and the weekend would be free.

Council also heard a report from Miller who is investigating the possibility replacing all the meters in the borough with parking kiosks.

He presented his findings on the cost and benefits of the kiosks.

Instead of meters at each space, a machine in a kiosk would be installed on each block where people could pay with either coins or a credit card.

The machines offer both pay by numbered space or pay by license plate number models. Motorists would not have to print out a ticket to place on their dashboards so they would not have to walk to the kiosk and then back again to their vehicles, Miller said.

The machines cost about $6,000 each, and the borough would likely need to buy 10.

Though council would need to discuss options to pay for the machines, they would pay for themselves in less than two years at the current rate of 50 cents for one hour of parking, Miller said.

The borough has 135 meters, which causes problems to maintain and to collect money from, Council President Allen Bayer said.

“They’re a damn nuisance; they really are,” Bayer said.

Councilwoman Mary Hess said a new parking system could be an opportunity for more effective enforcement of the two-hour limit for Main Street parking.

“We want to find a way to control how long someone parks on Main Street and is taking vitals spaces away from some of our merchants,” Hess said.

Miller said he will visit other communities that have the kiosks and look at additional options before requesting council to consider the purchase.