Parking officials last week voted to void a $30 ticket issued in January to a local commuter.
Matt Miller had paid for his parking in the Railroad Lot on Monday, Jan. 23 and Tuesday, Jan. 24, officials said at the Parking Commission meeting, held last Wednesday at Town Hall and via videoconference.
But he had inadvertently entered wrong space numbers each time, Miller told the commissioners during an appeal at the meeting.
“I park at the train station three, four mornings a week now,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to see the spots there. In the mornings, sometimes you’re rushing and it’s dark.”
Miller did pay for parking at the lot via the PayByPhone app, but “I did plug in the wrong number,” he said.
Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said the Commission has a precedent where it’s allowed her to void one ticket per calendar year for commuters in such cases.
“And then anything else should go to you guys to make that decision,” she said. “But he did clearly—I have all the information in front of me—pay for the space on both those days. It was just the space number that was input correctly.”
Miltenberg added that she had already used that discretionary void for a Miller ticket the prior week for the same problem.
Miller said, “Yes, I had a bad week. They happened to be the same week.”
Commissioner Drew Magratten asked for clarification that originally three tickets had been issued, and one already had been voided. Miller said yes.
“The first one was the week prior and then two were the same week,” he said.
In the end, Commission Chair Jennifer Donovan and members Kevin Karl and Magratten additionally voided one of the other two $30 tickets, so that Miller will only need to pay for one.
“I just have to say one thing—my husband always has reading glasses on,” Donovan said. “Every time he has to pay for something, he’s futzing with his glasses. And it’s dark out and he’s putting the wrong number in. If he’s commuting at six in the morning and he’s still paying for his parking, he just put the wrong number in, so he did it three times and Stacy can let one go by. As far as I’m concerned, he paid for it and he made an error but maybe let one go on and then he’ll pay for the third.”
The Commission agreed.
Please repaint the parking numbers! In the dark, they are nearly impossible to read!
Great suggestion, Paul! Maybe try flourescent paint?