Bloomington's parking meters have not performed as expected, Mayor John Hamilton announced at a press conference Friday.
Hamilton estimates lost revenue from the failing meters is in the "six-figures" range. The meters, projected to provide more than $1 million in annual revenue for the city, have brought in only $495,000 per year, according to the city.
"Since installation of the meters, nearly every meter in our city has failed to work properly," Hamilton says.
Issues with the meters include frozen keyboards, dead batteries, a lack of backlighting, inoperable card readers, coins becoming stuck, and improper installation.
The monthly failure rate for the meters was 18 percent before being reinstalled under warranty last December, according to Hamilton. The failure rate has dropped to five percent since, and Hamilton says the city is working with vendor IPS to bring that number even lower.
"We have work to do to fix this problem that is underway now," Hamilton says. "We're working closely with IPS. It is my expectation that this company will stand by their product and their services and produce a system that is acceptable in its quality and operations, and if not, we will look for alternatives."
The meters were installed by vendor IPS in August 2013 at a cost of more than $1.86 million. The city also pays $15,000 a month to IPS in processing fees for data collection, credit card processing and back office monitoring.