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November 9, 2012

High-tech parking meters

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — Those long-awaited, high-tech parking meters for the city’s Gray Street parking lot will be installed this month. It’ll cost 25 cents an hour to park in what is now a free lot.

“I think, hopefully, by the first of the year, the system will be in place,” said Shawn O’Leary, the city’s public works director. “It’s still a work in progress, but we’re getting close to the end.”

The lot was years in the making, too. Buildings were purchased and demolished. A city-owned building was torn down earlier this year. The new spaces are striped and used every day.

Parkers will be able to pay for their space time with credit and debit cards, cash and even through smart phones. The city is also talking to Campus Corner merchants about a similar system.

Mr. O’Leary said there will be a transition period for parking tickets giving downtown parkers time to learn the system before discovering those pink tickets on their windshields. No surprises is a good policy.

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