New Parking Pay System Eyed for Downtown Cranford

Using the pay stations to park in Cranford seems to be an issue for some visitors, according to Mayor Thomas Hannen.

Hannen stated that he has received complaints on parking, particularly at the North Union at South Union Avenue lot. He said visitors are receiving an “invalid number” message when trying to pay.

The current pay stations are in need of replacement due to AT&T’s phasing out of the current model. Hannen said maybe they upgraded too soon and were better off with the old fashion coin model.

“It is driving people away from the downtown because if the meter doesn’t work here you are supposed to find the next nearest one,” Hannen explained.  “So for a person to have to walk a half a block to use a store right nearby, it’s starting to become a problem.”

Hannen added that merchants have also brought up this issue and are worried it might be a negative impact on business.

Township Administrator Joe Hartnett said Hannen might think differently about the old fashioned meters once he sees what the new ones have to offer.

“You could be out to dinner with your wife, get an alert on your phone that you only have 10 minutes left on the meter and pay directly from your smartphone,” he explained.

In the meantime, the committee agreed to examine that particularly pay station and find a fix so that visitors stop receiving this error message.

Hartnett said the township is also going to begin an analysis of what parking costs Cranford.

“There’s a lot of hidden costs that are buried in our budget, there’s a lot of indirect costs,” he said. “We ought to pull of those things out so we have a good handle on what our true costs are.”

The township is looking to go in a bulk deal with nearby municipalities for the new pay stations and Westfield calls Hartnett frequently on the issue, he added.