Helena Regional Airport (KHLN) budgeting for adding parking fee collection

The Helena Regional Airport Authority is budgeting to convert its “honor system” for parking payment to automated parking fee collection.

The airport’s budget, which would make the plan a reality, isn’t expected to be approved until the airport authority meets on May 27. The budget contains $250,000 for the conversion.

A slight increase in rates could result to help pay for the equipment. The increase could be in the range of 25 cents per day or perhaps a dollar a week, should additional revenue be needed to fund the conversion, said Ron Mercer, the airport’s director.

“If there is an adjustment, I would expect it to be very minor,” Mercer said, noting that a decision on rates wouldn’t be made until spring of 2016.

“This is not to increase the parking rates,” Mercer explained. “This is to maintain the parking rates.”

Long-term parking is $3 per day and a maximum of $15 per week.

Parking generates about $286,000 annually, Mercer said. Automated collection is projected to recover additional fees to pay for the conversion in three years, if not sooner.

“It should increase parking (fees collected) by about $100,000 a year,” he added.

Prior to the airport taking control of fee collection, a private company handled the task. The most the airport ever received, Mercer said, was $9,500 a year after the company deducted its costs although both the daily and weekly rates were slightly higher at that time than they are now.

The airport receives about $25,000 a month in fees, but in March — typically a slower month — received slightly more than $29,000, which leads Mercer to conclude, “The indications are we’re missing quite a bit of the revenues.”

Currently, airport staff place envelopes on the windshields of the vehicles in the long-term parking lot and record the license plate numbers. Most people pay, some quicker than others, and the money has to be accounted for. Those who don’t pay must be tracked down through the vehicle’s license plate number. The owner of the vehicle has to be identified and then sent a letter requesting payment. Those who refuse to pay can end up pleading their case before Helena’s city judge.

“It’s a huge accounting burden for us to operate that lot as we do right now,” Mercer said.

“We put in several hours per day into that system,” he noted.

The conversion, which would include fencing around the long-term parking area, would not take place until spring of 2015.

“You can drive out of this lot pretty easy,” he noted as the parking lot has no fencing.

An additional access into the lot as well as paving, curbing and guttering are also planned should the project go ahead.

The actual electronic equipment that would dispense the ticket to parking patrons and collect the money — cash as well as credit or debit cards — will be about $100,000 of the total cost, Mercer said.

Plans call for having a backup system should it be needed, he added.

Also included in the overall cost is about $50,000 to make improvements to better serve the vehicle rental businesses at the airport.

An area would be set aside somewhere near the terminal building for the rental companies to have vehicles that are ready for pickup by renters, Mercer said.

The airport is currently seeking bids to expand the free, short-term parking near the terminal and add about 70 spaces. None of these convenient spaces would be used for vehicle rentals.

The plan for automating the collection of long-term parking fees will come with an expansion of the long-term parking lot.

There are 715 parking spaces in the long-term lot and 150 parking spaces would be added, Mercer said.

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