Huntingburg Council meeting: Parking tickets pack bigger punch

The Huntingburg Council took Police Chief Art Parks’ recommendation to increase fines for parking tickets and decided to add even more weight to the upcoming ordinance.

Originally, Parks requested the $1 fine for violations of timed spots be increased to $5; additionally he requested the $5 fine for improper, yellow-zone and handicap parking violations be raised to $10.

City Attorney Phil Schneider told the council that the state has set a minimum fine of $50 for handicap parking violations and the city is required to adhere to that minimum fine. The city can increase that rate however they cannot make that fine less than the state’s minimum.

Councilman Steve McPherron began a discussion about increasing the fines even more than Parks’ recommendation. “I was just thinking it may be more of deterrent if we increased it a little more,” McPherron said. “Ten bucks is one day at the airport.”

Councilman Glenn Kissling reminded McPherron the city can have the vehicle towed.

“I don’t want to have to revisit this issue in three months or 12 months,” McPherron said. “I would like to make it something that has a bit of meat to it. I don’t think most people will have a problem with it.”

Councilman Alex Blackgrove stated he would support giving the fines a bit more teeth.

Along with the discussion about fines for illegal parking, Councilwoman Linda Summers inquired into the enforcement of the two-hour timed parking along Fourth Street. Schneider informed the council that administrations in the past have enforced the overtime parking along Fourth Street at the request of the merchants. “Administrations in the past have been cooperative in whether they enforce it or not enforce base upon the merchants complaints,” he explained. “It very time consuming and labor intensive to enforce.”

Mayor Denny Spinner posited that he felt the first step of increasing the fines would be more of deterrent to parking violations throughout the city.

The council decided to increase the fines for tickets for improper parking to $25.

Overtime parking fines will be increased to $10 and doubled to $20 if they are not paid within 48 hours.

If tickets are not paid within 15 days the fees will increase to $50.

Tickets can be paid at the Clerk/Treasurer’s office or left in the utility drop box at the Huntingburg City Hall.

The council held the passage of the ordinance over for the next council meeting scheduled for April 25 at 7 p.m. to hear comments from Huntingburg citizens about the increases.[hr]

The council also took the following actions.

Approved GAI Consulting to begin the process of renewing the city’s Comprehensive Plan. This is examined every five years and 2007 was the last time it was updated. Thomas Kohler, consultant with GAI, will be the project manager for the process. Many times the state requires a city have an up-to-date comprehensive plan in place when applying for funding or grants. Kohler told the council they are going to concentrate heavily on the economic development of the city for the new plan. Kohler stated the process to develop the new plan would take about 120 days.

The council approved Ordinance 2013-31 to amend the salary ordinance to create the position of Director of Communications and Community Development. The vote was 4 to 1 with Councilwoman Linda Summers the sole dissenting vote.

Approved removing parking restrictions on with side of Third Street between Geiger and Main.

[box border=”full”]Aside: City Attorney Phil Schneider’s told the council, “I always follow those parking signs, if I see a sign that says “Fine for Parking”, I park there.”[/box]