Carbon County Commissioners took the next step Thursday toward operational parking kiosks in the county parking lot next to the train station in Jim Thorpe.

Commissioners approved the purchase of three CitePro hand held enforcement devices from United Public Safety of Fort Washington, Pa., which will be used to read license plates and issue parking tickets.

Part of a Costars Contract, the cost is $22,383.64 for the first year and $11,483.64 in years two and three.

It includes the equipment, data plan, warranty, licensing, software support, training, cloud set up and out of state Department of Motor Vehicle research.

“This is going to make it easier for our guys to go behind the vehicles, scan the plates and print the tickets out right there,” Commissioner Rocky Ahner said.

Parking kiosks were installed in the lot last week, but commissioners are still finalizing details, such as how much it will cost to park and training the staff.

The kiosks will mark a change to the parking process as motorists currently pay at a ticket booth upon entry to the lot.

The contract approved Thursday is key, Ahner said, because it allows the county to read out-of-state license plates.

“We have a majority of people coming here to Jim Thorpe from out of state so if we only had a system that read in-state plates, we would lose out on three-quarters of our revenue,” he said.

The county purchased the 15 kiosks for the lot and metered areas on Lehigh Avenue and Susquehanna Street from Butts Ticket Company in Cochranville in August 2019.

The total cost of the purchase was $175,550 and was taken out of the parking fund, which is generated by parking fees in the lot.

“This is a good thing,” Ahner said about the move to kiosks. “There is a lot of optimism. It’s going to help us out and hopefully result in more revenue coming in.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said the target date remains the beginning of September to have the kiosks up and running.

“We do have some critical pieces to finish up including the ordinance and probably most importantly, the signage,” he said. “We want to ensure we are communicating effectively with those who want to park in the county spots.”