By Mary C. Marvin

Jul. 15, 2015:  For the past year, the village staff has undertaken an extensive review of our parking inventory with the goals of encouraging more space turnover to increase retail business, making meters themselves more understandable, customer friendly, and technologically advanced, and adding a level of uniformity and consistency to the entire parking matrix.

Using these goals as our template, we are rolling out changes on several fronts in August. It is the logical time to get the kinks out of the new initiatives during our quietest parking month.

In response to significant resident requests to add meter payment options beyond coins, the village plans to contract with PANGO, a mobile technology company, to provide a pay-by-phone option. Headquartered in Israel, PANGO is a global company doing business in the US in such locations as Harrisburg, PA, Phoenix, AZ, and Alexandria, VA.

After a thorough analysis of the competing providers, we are choosing PANGO because of its competitive pricing, user-friendly application, and the fact that it invented many of the app's innovations and hold the patents. PANGO allows us to take advantage of state-of-the-art technology with minimal capital outlay.

In contrast, employing a credit card swipe system would require expensive reconfiguration of over 1,200 meter heads.

PANGO works in conjunction with our meters, and its universal application will necessitate a village-wide ban on meter feeding.

Without enactment of this prohibition at the same time as implementation of this pay-by-phone application, a commuter could simply park in front of any store, jump on a train, add time all day, and usurp a valuable parking space for an entire day.

Conversely, if you anticipate using a meter for an hour and you are running late, you may add time up to the meter limit via cell phone while in a doctor's office, hair salon, etc. You no longer will have to run back to add time to a meter. It is important to note that the new technology will not replace the use of coins, but rather offer a second payment option.

We listened to our merchants, doctors, and restauranteurs, whose clientele often require longer increments of time than are currently available. As a result, we have increased the number of spaces that allow stays of three and four hours in the Cedar Street and Garden Avenue parking lots.

There is also no prohibition against moving one's car to a new space in the village after one's maximum meter time has expired. Enforcement of meter feeding will not be draconian. However, the continuous abuse of this practice will not be condoned.

It is important to note that most of our meter-feeding complaints come from our merchants themselves, who are frustrated with fellow merchants and employees parking for extended hours in front of their businesses.

In addition, as already provided for in the village code, we will be extending our on-street meter enforcement hours until 9:00 pm. We join many of our neighboring Westchester communities that implemented longer hours in years past. As with PANGO, we will roll out this change in the quiet of August.

Our reasoning for the extension is twofold:  after intensive observation, we noticed that cars in front of our theater, restaurants, health clubs, etc., were utilizing the free evening parking but not frequenting village establishments. This is detrimental to our local commerce.

Finances as always played a part. The anticipated revenue generated will conservatively result in the lowering of village taxes by a full 1 percent.

After speaking with merchants and members of our chamber of commerce, we have arranged to program our meters so that the entire six-to-nine-pm period, if so needed, may be paid for at once, so no one has to worry about leaving meals or classes. All of our lots will remain free in the evenings, so a free option will still be available.

Parking in the village is a constant balancing act between the needs of residents, customers, and merchants, and we are committed to working with all of our constituencies to maximize usage and efficiency.

We realize these changes represent a significant departure from current parking practices and we welcome your feedback to improve our execution.

We are open to adjusting and tweaking the system as needed.