ZELIENOPLE — In an attempt to make parking easier and to keep tabs on motorists who skip out on paying a parking meter, the borough will soon install a kiosk in one of its municipal parking lots.

If successful, the machines could be used borough wide.

The kiosk, made by Hectronic, is expected to be installed by Memorial Day and will be used for 60 days on a trial basis in the lot at the intersection of North Main Street and East Grandview Avenue. Borough council recently approved the trial run based on the recommendation of Police Chief Jim Miller, a member of the Police Matters Committee.

Miller said the committee chose to go with a pay-by-space method for the kiosk. After parking in the municipal lot, motorists will enter what space their vehicle is in at the kiosk. No tickets will have to be printed and placed on the vehicle's dashboard, which Miller said will save time.

“We are trying to make things a little more streamlined,” Miller said. “The meters we have now are just outdated.”

Police will be able to monitor all spaces and the time left in each one from a remote area. The monitoring can be done with an application on a smartphone or other electronic device.

“The officer can pull up the app on the phone or any other hand-held device you have and tell you what spaces are not paid for,” Miller said.

“You don't even have to go to the machine. It will make the whole process a little easier for everyone.”

Borough officers handle all parking enforcement, Miller said. He noted that it can take “quite a while” to oversee all meters while trying to take care of other police matters.

“Sometimes we're busy and the officers get called away to something else,” said Miller, who visited Niagara Falls, Canada, last year to see the Hectronic device in use there.

In addition to the kiosk, the police department is looking at getting hand-held parking ticket machines. The modules cost about $3,000 each, Miller said, and would allow officers to electronically enter a vehicle's information in the device and print tickets. Officers now have to manually write parking tickets in a ledger.

The kiosk, which will not cost anything while being tested, will be able to accept debit and credit cards as well as quarters for payment. No paper currency will be accepted, Miller said.

Although officials from Hectronic will install the machine, the police department will have to go through a bank to handle to debit and credit card transactions.

Council member Gregg Semel supports using a more modern parking meter system because motorists are more willing to pay with credit cards over coins.

“People don't always have the change,” Semel said.

“Nine times out of 10, if you don't have the change, you don't put the money in the meter.”

In November, Miller pitched to council the idea of going to an all-kiosk parking system. The machines cost about $7,400 each, he said, and the borough likely would have to buy 10 kiosks to cover all parking spaces in municipal lots and on the street.

Miller said the kiosks should pay for themselves in three to fours years with the revenue they generate. Drivers pay 25 cents for a half-hour and 50 cents for one hour of parking.

The borough has 166 meters.

Miller said a planned revitalization project that calls for a parking lot in Zelienople could bring 65 additional meters to cover all the spaces.

Borough council would have to approve any additional installation of kiosks.