New way to pay parking meters in Wildwood

While enjoying the beach, the boardwalk and everything else Wildwood has to offer, there can sometimes be one distraction. "Nobody wants to leave the beach and come up to put in $.50 or a dollar," said Jerome Vogel looking at the parking meter.

Feeding meters is a part of life in most shore resorts, and in Wildwood, they're making things easier with a new way to pay. Don't have change? All you need is a cell phone. "When you get to the meter, you call the number," said Katie Ferrara, project manager, "and you can set up a pre-paid account, either with a credit card or debit card, or even with checks if you like."

"I guess it's a very good idea, for you know, when you're down the beach," said Dori Ors, "it sounds like it's a really good idea."

While Wildwood will soon be the first city in New Jersey to use the program, it is up and running elsewhere. The mayor got the idea after visiting West Palm Beach, Florida. Seeing the program was a success there, he figured it would also work well here. "He saw the system, he took pictures of the meters with stickers on them and came back and said, hey...let's do this, it's quick and easy," explained Ferrara.

It will still cost you a $1 an hour to park, but another advantage is you only have to pay for the time you're there. "If you put coins in the meter, you cant take coins out," said Ferrara, "here, you don't have to pay for time that you're not spending here."

Officials anticipate that more people will use the meters because of the new system, therefore making it a win-win. "We should have a revenue increase of about 10-30%," estimated Ferrara, "that's what we've seen in other places as well, so we expect this to do well."

The system will be up and running in Wildwood starting July 1st. If using the new technology isn't for you, you can still do things the old-fashioned way.