Free parking ... for now

Someone took what appears to be a sledge hammer to the pay parking machine at the Town of La Conner public parking lot on S. Third Street.

Although the vandal was not successful in breaking in for the few dollars that might have been inside, they managed to totally break the machine.

Public Works Director Brian Lease told the Town Council last week that the yellow box that had been taking paper currency and spiting out daily parking permits and dollar coins in change cannot be resurrected.

The thing has been living on borrowed time for the last few years. It is obsolete, and repair parts are practically non-existent. Also, the dollar coins that fit it are becoming harder to come by.

New parking machines, like the ones in Seattle, are priced in the neighborhood of $12,000 and take debit and credit cards. And they come with a monthly maintenance fee to process the transactions.

In deciding whether to replace the machine, the Town Council has asked for an accounting on how much the public parking lot brings in at the rate of $3 per day. Town Finance Director Maria DeGoede expects to have exact figures for the council by the next meeting on Tuesday.

Just based on figures in the town’s proposed 2016 budget, the parking lot fees had been providing around $10,000 per year in revenue. But 2015 has been a banner year for the parking machine. Before it broke, it had taken in around $19,000 this year, DeGoede said.

In 2003 the town took out a bond to pay for the parking lot. Half of the parking money collected goes toward the bond payment; a portion comes from lodging tax and the rest from sales and other taxes, according to the town budget documents. The yearly parking lot payment has been running around $31,000 per year and is expected to be paid off in 2017.

On Tuesday the Town Council is expected to consider the town’s 2016 budget and also set the town’s property tax levy for the coming year.