Adams Opts For Metered Parking at Visitors Center
ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen have given interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan the OK to purchase kiosks for the Visitors Center parking lot.
Cesan had asked the board what direction they wanted to go in regarding metered parking now that the parking lot renovation project is well underway.
"We are at a point now where we really need to make a decision are we going to install a pay for parking kiosk or are we going to forgo that," she said. "We know that this area is becoming a focus of our visitors and I think there are many tourists who are used to paying for parking."
The town awarded the project to C&A Construction Co. Inc., which bid $518,000. The town received $700,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for the project.
The plans include eliminating the center median, installing a new entrance, improved drainage and more parking spaces.
At an April meeting before the contractor broke ground, Cesan brought up the kiosks but gave the board time to consider them. There is already money in the budget for the kiosks.
The board was concerned about Council on Aging members and the patients and employees of the adjacent Adams Internists having to pay to use the lot.
Cesan said the Council on Aging, now in the Visitors Center, will eventually be moving to the Memorial Building but they would have to work out an agreement with the Adams Internists. She said employees could be marked down so the parking attendant will not ticket them. As for patients, the town could allow the first hour free, which should accommodate them.
Selectwoman Christine Hoyt suggested that the Adams Internists be charged something.
"They are using our facility. They are not paying us anything for upkeep or anything," she said. "It is nice that they have business, but they are not helping us ... I do think that we need to do something."
The rest of the board agreed, and Selectman James Bush said he was also concerned about residents using and saturating the Greylock Credit Union and Big Y parking lots to avoid paying.
"People will find the free parking if they have pay to park there," Bush said. "They are going to go somewhere else ... the locals will know."
Selectman Joseph Nowak said he wanted the kiosks but felt they would not work if there was no parking attendant to consistently check them.
"It is only going to be a success if the attendant keeps up because your going to have to make sure that all of the meters in the town are controlled, otherwise it would not be fair," he said.
Hoyt said the town had budgeted for a part-time attendant but there is not enough money to hire a full-time attendant.
Selectman John Duval said he thought the kiosks would give the town some sort of revenue stream for parking lot maintenance.
"The parking lot that we have had was apparently not taken care of as well as it could have been ... and with a kiosk those are funds that can be used to fix things," he said. "We will have a higher rate of use on that lot so there will be some wear and tear."
Cesan said the considering the meters as a revenue stream is really secondary and that their main purpose is to keep cars moving.
"Typically, when you pay for parking it is not really a revenue source ... the primary motivation is looking at parking spaces as a commodity," she said. "You need to keep people moving."
Cesan added that much of the details can be figured out. She said the project would be completed in November, but the kiosks could be turned on whenever they want.
Hoyt said realistically, with free parking during the holidays, the kiosks should actually go live in early 2019.
The selectmen agreed the finer details could be worked out, but the town really needs to install the kiosks.
"This puts us to speed with modern times," Nowak said. "We have always been so parochial, and we don't want some things to change but kiosks are everywhere, and I don't see a problem with them."
Tags: parking, parking meters, visitors center,
