There may no longer be a need to hoard your quarters as traditional parking meters could be on their way out in downtown Jim Thorpe.

Kiosks accepting both cash and credit card payments may be the wave of the future if the Jim Thorpe Police Department can secure grant funding to purchase and install them, Mayor Mike Sofranko said at Thursday's borough council meeting.The whole project could cost around $40,000 and is, at best, a year away from becoming a reality, police Chief Joe Schatz said."It would give us a lot of advantages," Schatz said. "For one thing, one of the top questions I hear from people walking around downtown is where can I go get quarters? With the kiosks you can set any amount of time you want, pay and put the slip on your dash. With the amount of traffic flow we are seeing downtown, our meters are becoming antiquated."Sofranko said the initial rollout could feature four or five kiosks downtown that would handle a block of parking spaces.Councilman John McGuire suggested the borough contact the county to see if it might also want to look into parking kiosks.If and when the kiosks are installed, the hourly rate to park in a downtown space may also be different.While council took no action Thursday, it is considering raising the parking fee from $0.50 per hour to $0.75 per hour.Sofranko said such a move would bring the town in line with other tourist destinations."When you go elsewhere, you're paying anywhere from $0.75 per hour to $2 per hour," he said. "Any additional revenue we could bring in would go toward a matching grant for the kiosks. It would also give us more money to station more officers downtown to help with traffic flow and different things."The borough continues to meet with county commissioners and representatives from the Carbon County and Jim Thorpe chambers of commerce to discuss traffic flow.A traffic study revealed just shy of 9,000 cars come through the Susquehanna Street and Broadway intersection per day, while the light at the 903 bridge gets 10,000 cars coming in and out of Jim Thorpe each day.Around 116,000 people have entered the train station to date this year."We're applying for some grants that may help us redesign the way traffic flows in downtown Jim Thorpe. Since we've all started meeting and sitting down at the table together, we're already seeing results."Council did take action on two parking matters Thursday, removing two 15-minute parking spaces across from what was Dugan's General Store. The spaces will be metered. It also prohibited parking on the sidewalks in front of the former store, which had been common practice.