Town officials on Tuesday approved a $19,508 contract with an Auburn, Mass.-based company to replace the two pay-to-park machines destroyed by vandals earlier this month at the Talmadge Hill Train Station lot.
The vandalized parking pay machines at Talmadge Hill Railroad Station. Credit: Michael Dinan
The “Parkeon Strada BNA PAL” machines from Wescor Parking Controls Inc. will take about eight to 10 weeks to arrive once approved by town funding bodies, Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting.
One of the machine had its “whole insides taken out” during the vandalism, discovered Sept. 7, Miltenberg said at the meeting, held in Town Hall.
“They attempted to break into the other machine, but when they found, I think, that there was not much money in the first, they abandoned the idea of breaking totally into the second machine,” she said.
The case is under investigation by the New Canaan Police Department.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract.
Bill Oestmann, buildings superintendent with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, said it will come from state transportation officials have approved a plan to relocate the machines from an upper-tier lot at Talmadge Hill to the station platform.
Williams asked whether surveillance cameras are in place there (no) and whether the town has insurance on the machines (yes but with a $25,000 deductible).
Oestmann noted that town officials are pushing for the Connecticut Department of Transportation to put in canopies on the platform at Talmadge Hill and, if they go in, New Canaan would “look to incorporate cameras and stuff into the upgrades.”