Parking meter a hit

Never has the payment kiosk at the La Conner town parking lot been so popular.

Every afternoon this week, there have been visitors standing in line to use the new parking pay station that runs on debit and credit cards.

“For some reason, people are just more than happy to slide their cards,” said Town Administrator John Doyle.

For the first time in 13 years, the town increased the parking fee to $4 per day this year, but business has picked up.

Last year, the fussy, old clunker of a meter that took cash yielded $3,548 during the three months spanning January through March. That translates to around 394 parking permits per month sold for $3 each.

The new parking meter went into service in mid-February and in just six weeks took in $4,311, for about 718 of the $4 permits sold per month.

But wait, there’s more: Last week, just Thursday through Sunday, the parking meter took in $2,525, Doyle said. That comes out to 631 parking permits sold each day during the height of the Tulip Festival!

Persnickety Old Yellow, which used to suck in currency and spit out parking permits and dollar coins in change, was dealt a death blow by a vandal just before the Art’s Alive! festival last fall. In the 11 months of 2015, when it was tormenting tourists and the town Public Works employees who kept it running, it took in almost $19,000.

Someone apparently tried to break into it to steal the cash inside. The old pay machine was purchased in 2003 for $9,000. After the vandal killed it, the Town Council approved spending around $13,000 for its up-to-date replacement.

The new machine takes plastic credit and debit cards and each evening automatically transfers the day’s total sales directly to the town’s bank account. Town employees are no longer required to empty the cash and search for a supply of dollar coins, which are not very common in circulation.

Money from parking fees goes toward paying the bond for its construction and for maintenance of the parking lot.