Irwin OKs buying 75 refurbished meters; sets rates at 25 cents for half-hour

Irwin officials took steps this week to standardize parking rates in the borough at 25 cents for 30 minutes.

It’s part of an ongoing process that will start with buying 75 refurbished digital parking meters that will replace mechanical ones.

Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the standardized rate. It will be programmed in the refurbished meters to be purchased from Meter Products Co. Inc. of Paterson, N.J., for $4,975.

The borough does not have any digital meters, said Stacie Santimyer, borough assistant manager, who prepared a report for council on the meters. Meter Products has not said how long it would take to ship the programmed meters to the borough, Santimyer said.

Some mechanical meters give motorists 30 minutes of time for a nickel, while others also give motorists 30 minutes for a quarter, said Shari Martino, borough manager. When asked if the older meters could be recalibrated to set the time for 30 minutes for a quarter, Martino said that could not be done because the borough can’t get the parts for those meters.

The new parking meter rate for Irwin would match the rates in Latrobe and Ligonier, said Shari Martino, borough manager. In Greensburg, however, the charge is $1 per hour, she said.

Borough officials have discussed in recent months purchasing some refurbished digital meters each year until the old mechanical meters are replaced. The borough has about 275 parking meters. Most of the spaces are in the downtown business district.

Replacing the old mechanical meters that were faulty became an issue after the Westmoreland County Bureau of Weights and Measures ordered the meters to be “bagged” in October until they were recalibrated because they did not keep proper time for the money put into the mechanism.

The inspection was prompted by a motorist who received a parking ticket when the meter for that space was not working properly.