Carbon buys kiosks for county parking lot

Carbon County officials took the next step in changing over its parking lot in Jim Thorpe from a manned ticket booth where drivers have to stop and pay to self-serve kiosks.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved the purchase of 15 kiosks for the lot in Jim Thorpe, as well as metered areas on Lehigh Avenue and Susquehanna Street from Butts Ticket Company of Cochranville for a total cost of $175,550. The money will be taken out of the parking fund, which is generated by the parking fees already in place to park in the county lot.

In May, the commissioners announced they were beginning to look at the changeover after Jim Thorpe borough shifted its meters to parking kiosks.

“This is a new venture, Commissioner William O’Gurek said, noting that the changeover, which isn’t expected to be installed until next year under a new board of commissioners, will help with cutting down on traffic backups into the lot on busy weekends.

“We hoped for October, but that’s not going to happen,” Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said.

The ticket booth at the entrance of the lot will no longer be manned once the changeover takes place, but parking attendants will patrol the lot, making sure all vehicles have paid at the kiosks to park.

The kiosks will accept coins, bills and debit and credit cards, but the fee has not yet been settled.

The commissioners said that the decision was easier thanks to information Jim Thorpe provided them as they looked at kiosks.

In addition to the kiosks, the county is hoping to start running a shuttle service within the parking lot sometime in September as a test run for fall foliage weekends.

The county kept one of the small LANTA buses that are used for public transportation that had recently been replaced and will provide a shuttle service from the end of the lot heading into the rail yard to the entrance since it is quite a distance to walk for visitors after parking their vehicles.

The bus will run on high demand days, such as in October, when the lot is utilized most.

“We feel when people are paying $10 to park and then drive all the way up there, we think the right thing to do is provide transportation,” O’Gurek said.