Paying For Daily Sharon Train Parking Moves Into Present

Daily parking passes at the Sharon MBTA commuter rail station will be a credit or smart card away, possibly around Aug. 1, Public Works Superintendent Eric Hooper says.

The change from putting folded dollar bills into parking space slots is phase two of three of "bringing the railroad parking into the 21st century," Hooper told selectmen Tuesday night.

On June 4, Sharon sold quarterly parking passes online for the first time, and it was "very successful," Hooper said. Town Administrator Benjamin Puritz said 300 passes were sold over the first 10 minutes.

"I've heard only one complaint about the whole process. That's phenomenal," said Selectmen Chairman William Heitin, who said he was "a little hesitant" about the process before this.

Selectmen voted 3-0 to award the daily pay station project. Ven-Tek International of Petaluma, Calif. was the low bidder, at $46,262, Town Engineer Peter O'Cain told selectmen in a June 7 memo.

Ven-Tek received "very good reviews from a lot of local communities," including Andover and Waltham, Hooper said.

The change will "allow us to not have to have the staff count folded up dollar bills every day," he said.

"Cash handling" has long concerned Sharon's auditors, he said.

"It's a bookkeeping nightmare for us and for the town," Hooper said.

O'Cain said the DPW office will sell the smart cards for cash.

License plate readers for the police department is the last of the three phases, Hooper said.

That effort is "also going to be completed fairly soon," Hooper said.

Selectmen app