Jul 25, 2015 2 min read

I read with interest the July 5 letter from Deb Babirad on her troubles with a parking meter in downtown Washington. I also have had a problem with the parking meters in Washington.

My father was in the hospital, and when I visited early in the morning, I wondered about the hours of enforcement. I looked at my meter and the ones next to it, and did not see any tags inside or any signs posted on the street. My meter had a two-hour limit. The one next to mine had a 10-hour limit, so I thought the hours of enforcement were between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. When I got back to my car, a ticket was on my windshield.

I stopped at the police station to pay the ticket under protest, because the hours were not indicated. After being told all meters have that tag and knowing that was not the case, I went to Washington City Hall to talk to the person in charge. He was not in, so I called later and told him my concerns. He mentioned he would go to the hospital area to check, since all meters have the hours posted. I told him to go out in front of city hall and check, since those meters did not have the hours or days of enforcement posted either. I also remarked it was not fair to visitors or anyone else to not have the hours posted.

At the Whiskey Rebellion Festival – which was great, by the way – I parked in a metered lot and told someone from out of town that the meters were not checked on weekends. He said he looked for a sign and did not see anything, and was thinking about feeding the meter anyway to avoid a ticket.

I don’t understand why the city pays someone to walk around checking meters and issuing tickets when it should be illegal to enforce something that is not posted in the first place. Washington needs to print meter tags or post signs. Until that is done, a moratorium on issuing tickets should be put into place.

Dennis Croft

Washington