Students, faculty and staff are no longer able to put in a nickel for all the time their cars spend at Lot 100, south of Lied Recreation Center.

Currently, the Department of Public Safety parking division officials are selling parking time from their trucks because the machines are broken, said Doug Houghton, DPS parking division manager.

“We’ve struggled with the existing machines, trying to get them repaired,” he said. “It finally just reached the point where we were almost out there everyday. People found this very stressful, so we made the decision [to use the trucks].”

Houghton said about 18 months ago, the department decided to purchase pay-by-stall machines to replace the current pay-and-display machines, or having a ticket in the car.

Pay-by-stall machines are currently located near the Armory.

Patrons park their cars, note the number of the stall and then go to a payment kiosk to pay for the amount wanted.

Chad Deike, landscape architect for Facilities, Planning and Management, said the lot will look similar to the Armory’s lot. He said one kiosk will be located near the south entrance of Lied and one west of the main door entrance.

Deike doesn’t foresee any problems with getting the project done, except for the variables out of his control.

“A lot will depend on weather. There is concrete work that takes place, and that work is very dependent on weather,” he said. “It’ll also be dependent on contractors, depending on their schedule.”

The entire project costs are about $74,000, Houghton said, including purchase of three new machines and installation, new numbers and signs. Two machines will go in Lot 100, and one will be located in Lot 21.

He said due to production problems, the machines didn’t arrive until November when the ground was frozen. Because the machines were not delivered as promised, the machine model was increased to the next level for the same price, Houghton said.

“We ended up with three machines that retail for 11 [thousand] to 12,000 a piece, and we didn’t pay that much for them,” he said.

Houghton said the parking staff has to manage the lot with parking attendants because with the current gates in the lot weren’t repaired as needed.

“Because we knew we were going to do this, we haven’t bought a lot of replacement parts,” he said. “Over the last five years, we’ve had pretty substantial repair problems with these machines. The down time is extremely long. Right now, one of the parts is in England for repair.”