PARKING METERS GREET SEMO VISITORS

You have to feed the meter to park in visitor parking spaces behind Academic Hall.

Southeast Missouri State University has installed six digital parking meters in visitor parking spaces behind Academic Hall, the first meters in Cape Girardeau in more than a decade.

"An old solution is taking care of a continuous problem," said Doug Richards, the school's public-safety director.

He said the meters have freed up visitor parking spots. They have worked so well that the university may install more meters in other campus parking areas to ensure that visitors will find a place to park, Richards said.

Meters may be installed in parking areas around the campus residence halls and Kent Library, he said.

There always has been limited visitor parking behind Academic Hall. But the renovation of the nearby Social Science Building has eliminated much of the parking for faculty, staff, students and visitors.

Before the meters were installed, university employees and students often parked in the few spaces reserved for visitors.

Visitors found it difficult to find a place to park. It sometimes took 20 minutes to find a parking place, Richards said.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, said the meters are designed to keep students, faculty and staff from using parking slots that are reserved for visitors.

"It is not designed to be a money-maker or a nuisance," said Wallhausen. "It is designed so there will be spots there for visitors."

The meters were installed a month ago at a cost of about $2,500.

Motorists must feed the meters if they park in the visitor spots between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

It costs a nickel to park for six minutes, 10 cents for 12 minutes and 25 cents for 30 minutes, the maximum time allowed on the meters.

"We ticket after 30 minutes," Richards said. Campus police issue a second ticket after two hours. If a car is still parked there after another two hours and the motorist hasn't fed the meter, the car is towed.

Campus police have issued tickets, but so far haven't had to send for the tow truck, Richards said.

The meters were recommended by the university's parking committee and authorized by Dr. Ken Dobbins, the school's executive vice president.

There also are three 10-minute parking spots behind Academic Hall and several handicapped parking spots that aren't metered.

Most of the parking slots are reserved for university employees, Wallhausen said.

Richards said the university had metered parking on campus years ago.

The city of Cape Girardeau used parking meters for more than three decades. The city removed its parking meters in the fall of 1980, ending an era that began in 1948, when 425 meters were installed along Broadway and Main streets, and in the Good Hope shopping area.

By the early 1970s, the city had nearly 1,000 parking meters in operation.

But over the years, motorists grew to dislike paying to park. Downtown merchants said the meters drove customers away.

By 1980, it also had become costly to maintain the meters and enforce the parking restrictions. The city council decided it was time to remove the meters.

The city even made money on its decision. It sold more than 240 of the meters to the public as collectors' items. The meters netted the city $2,273.