ARLINGTON,Va. – Thousands of people using a pre-paid parking device in Arlington may soon find it useless.
EPark Systems, which made and distributed the devices for Arlington County, has gone out of business.
County Treasurer Frank O’Leary says customers who have pre-paid parking time still available on the device will be able to to use it but they won’t be able to add money onto it after that.
IPark allowed motorists to add set amounts onto their device with a credit card. Each time they pulled into an Arlington parking lot, they would put it out on the dash, and turn it on, allowing them to park without putting quarters or a credit card on the meter.
They were able to reload the devices at the county treasurer’s office. But O’Leary says with ePark now out of business, the county can no longer re-load the devices. The device itself cost about $20.00
“I do apologize to people whose units will run out of time in the next few months and will suffer some period of discomfort,”says O’Leary, who owns one of the devices himself.
The county is now looking for a system to replace ePark and may be able to offer current users a discount on a new device.
“We will work out a deal with them because we don’t want to put undo financial burden on people.”
This is the second time a company making such a parking device for Arlington has gone out of business.
The county had been using ePark Systems since 2005.
O’Leary says anyone who has any questions about the program should call his office at 703-228-4000.
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