City plugging old meters as gifts

Once a tool more to the Grinch’s liking, the city of Spokane is betting its supplies of mothballed parking meters will spread joy this holiday season.

The street department will sell its remaining mechanical parking meters for $35 each starting Monday.

There are between 500 and 1,000 left of the 2,800 meters replaced in recent years as the city switched to battery-operated ones, said Dave Shaw, the city’s traffic control supervisor. The last of the mechanical meters, which have pop-up signs reflecting a parked car’s violation status, were removed about a year ago.

City officials are marketing the devices as “a great gift for the person who has everything” – as a Friday news release labeled them.

“There’s all sorts of uses you can come up for them,” Shaw said.

They could be wired with the family boob tube to help enforce kids’ TV-watching time rules, he recommended.

“They’re kind of a rec room piece,” suggests Public Works Director Dave Mandyke, who adorned his City Hall desk with a mechanical meter some time ago.

City spokeswoman Marlene Feist’s news release promotes buying one for “your spouse who continually parks his or her junk on the kitchen counter.”

Shaw reminisced how he previously purchased an outdated city traffic light, which he plans install in his shop. He’s had it about a decade.

“For most of (the meters), they will probably collect dust,” he admitted.

But depending where they’re collecting dust, they’re sure to stir buzz.

“It’s just a piece of nostalgia that doesn’t come along very often,” Shaw said.