WHITE ROCK — With White Rock's waterfront undoubtedly being the city's most popular parking location, council is hoping to make it as easy as ever for visitors and guests to drop some coin on the prime parking pads.
To that end, the city will be replacing the current 10-year-old parking machines with the latest and greatest in pay-parking technology, to the tune of $333,000.
The figure, as noted by the city's director of financial services Sandra Kurylo, will cover 36 new pay parking machines and six handheld devices and everything else needed for the city to maintain the system.
"When it was purchased, the dispensers were said to have a seven-to 10-year lifetime," explained Kurylo, adding that it was near-impossible to find replacement parts for both the meters and handheld devices currently used.
Kurylo said the handheld devices were particularly outdated and noted no contractors wanted to deal with the aged hardware.
The newer features will also allow a more efficient pay-by-phone method of payment, and users will now be able to receive text messages before their time is up, with the option of topping up their time remotely. As for the money granted, Kurylo said it had already been budgeted for over the past five years and as such, the funds have been saved for it.
Council unanimously approved the funding, with Mayor Wayne Baldwin noting the project had come in under budget by $85,000.