Woodstock — The village’s battle-scarred parking meters — often maligned as being out-of-date, confusing and inaccurate — are about to be uprooted from their posts and replaced with modern machines that town leaders hope will make people happier, even as they’re charged more money.

“In the best-case scenario, these would be installed in mid-September, pre-foliage season,” said Jeffrey Kahn, a Woodstock merchant who chaired a committee that developed a proposal to sign a three-year contract with IPS Group, a California-based firm.

Woodstock Village Trustees voted earlier this month to upgrade the town’s coin-only meters with solar-powered meters that would accept coins and swipe cards; in the business district on Central and Elm streets, the cost to park would increase from 50 cents to $1 per hour.

A quote from IPS, which would retain ownership of the meters, pegged the price of installation and ancillary equipment at $12,500, but Town Manager Phil Swanson says the true upfront cost won’t be determined until after a company representative visits in early August to see how compatible the meters are with the town’s existing supportive features, such as the meter housing and coin-boxes.

Under the contract, the company would be paid $5.75 per month, per meter, to maintain its software. The quote was for 150 meters, but Swanson said the actual number of meters in town is 184.

However, he said, the town won’t necessarily need 184 new meters, because the parking committee has also proposed eliminating 16 or 20 meters from a chunk of the Mechanic Street lot to make way for designated parking for people who work in dowtown Woodstock.

If 168 meters are contracted, the town would pay the company $966 per month, plus 13 cents per credit card swipe.

“We think that this will either be cost neutral or will bring money in,” Kahn said. “The money that comes in will be restricted to supporting the program.”

That’s because Kahn projects that the rate increase, combined with the fact that the credit card interface will encourage more people to pay, will generate enough revenue to pay for the company’s cut.

Kahn, who owns the Unicorn gift shop on Central Street, has seen Woodstock’s parking woes from a variety of angles. He and his staff have to figure out where to park themselves, and then watch through the storefront window as prospective customers cruise by the car-lined streets during peak hours.

Sometimes, those customers or other visitors enter the store in a panic, asking if Kahn can make change for a dollar, so that they can feed the meter before they get a parking ticket.

None of that has enhanced Woodstock’s reputation as a tourist destination, as is evidenced by West Hartford resident Sonja Hakala, who was left so cold by her own parking ticket experience in Woodstock last year that she used it as the inspiration for a scene in her latest novel The Dazzling Uncertainty of Life.

“Parking was a renowned blood sport on Woodstock’s main street,” begins one paragraph, setting up a scene in which a character visiting town watches in disbelief as her meter goes from 15 minutes to a violation notice in the blink of the eye, resulting in a ticket from an unsympathetic enforcement agent.

Hakala said that when she got her $10 parking ticket last year, she had put enough money in one of the older meters to get two hours out of it, but only got 18 minutes. She wrote a letter to the town protesting the ticket, and it never pursued enforcement actions against her, she said.

Hakala welcomed the news of Woodstock’s meter upgrade.

“I’m really glad to hear that they’re responding,” Hakala said. “To me, this is an acknowledgment that there has been a problem.”

Cary Agin, a trustee who voted in favor of the plan, said that, because he was only recently elected to the board, he was uncomfortable commenting on the issue.

The upgrade is part of a larger effort to alleviate parking in the business district by encouraging full-time employees to make different parking decisions. Right now, a pool of about 100 full-timers often choose to feed the meters throughout the day, rather than drive to parking spots that are farther away.

By charging a premium for the most in-demand strip, officials hope more employees will switch to meters on the fringes of the district, that will continue to cost 50 cents an hour, or to free parking. The designated employee section of Mechanic Street, if approved, will also relieve pressure by giving 16 workers another parking option, at a cost of $100 per year.

Kahn said he would like to pay for a card-operating gate system in the lot by applying to the town for a grant of roughly $12,000 from the fund created by the 1 percent local option tax on rooms, meals and alcohol sales.

Swanson said the net effect will be fewer parking violations, and a better parking experience.

“The convenience of being able to put a swipe card in is going to improve compliance,” he said. “It’s going to cut down on people being irritated with the ticket. I think we’ll have happier people, which means fewer complaints.”

Kahn said that, if the set-aside for employee parking goes well, the program could be expanded by leasing a parking lot from the Woodstock Historical Society on Elm Street and creating about 35 more employee-designated parking spots.

Kahn said that, if the town can change employee parking habits, it might lead to an even more welcome development.

“As a long-term goal, if this works out, we’d like to think about removing the meters altogether sometime down the road,” he said.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.