Around Town

‘You Should Be Ashamed’: New Canaan Parking Violators Offer Unsolicited Advice

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What follows is a special installment of our parking ticket appeals roundup—here we reproduce the letters not of those appealing their tickets, but the parting words of those who pay up following violations yet feel it best to offer advice to the New Canaan Parking Bureau. As always, we have produced spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization in its original form. ***

“To be honest, I believe that this is not how the town of New Canaan should treat well meaning people. The fact that no where does it say you must pay before departing or receive a ticket is an unethical practice and a very poor reflection on the town and it’s government. As a previous resident for many years, I am sad that both my mother and I have been not treated fairly and with an appreciation of the effort to pay what I owe within 24 hours.

Around Town

‘I Only Parked That Way To Pick Up a Pair of Shoes from the Cobbler’: Parking Ticket Appeals

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What follows are excerpts from parking ticket appeals letters filed recently with the New Canaan Parking Bureau. Where available, we’ve included information on the violation for which these people were cited, in what amount, and where and when the violation occurred. We preserve spelling, capital letters and punctuation as written by the appellant. ***

“We needed to park in the shade due to medicine in car needing to be kept cool. The car next to us was parked diagonally over our line so we needed to park further to the right, thereby crossing the right-side line.”

—$30 for obstructing two spaces in Morse Court at 10:18 a.m. on July 21

***

“A TRUCK WAS BLOCKING THE SIGN, I PARKED BEHIND THE TRUCK, I NEVER SAW THE SIGN.

Government

Town Publishes Waiting Lists for Commuter Parking Lot Permits

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Town officials now are publishing online the waiting lists for the three commuter parking lots most in demand in New Canaan, at the Lumberyard, Richmond Hill and Talmadge Hill. The lists (they can be found here) will be updated monthly, according to Stacy Miltenberg, superintendent of the New Canaan Parking Bureau. Their publication follows a major effort undertaken by the bureau to “clean up” the waiting lists. Prompted by the Parking Commission, the town last year instituted a $10 annual fee to stay on the lists, and Miltenberg and her department spent several months reaching out to applicants to ensure they still were actively waiting. “When we cleaned up the waitlists back in September, the Parking Commission felt it was a good idea to publish them, because people constantly called to find out where they are,” Miltenberg told NewCanaanite.com.

Government

New Canaan Parking Enforcement Officers Now on Bikes, Too

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Parking enforcement officers who long have patrolled downtown New Canaan on foot or from one of three town-issued vehicles, now can be seen keeping motorists out of loading zones, handicapped spaces and crosswalks from bicycles. Days after the start of a fiscal year that saw a request for a fourth vehicle pushed out, the New Canaan Parking Bureau acquired two bicycles for enforcement officers’ use, according to Stacy Miltenberg, head of the department. “We have a bike patrol,” she told members of the Parking Commission at their meeting last Thursday night, held in Town Hall. “We have four people. We only have three cars.

Business

New Parking Machines to Be Installed Thursday at Downtown Lots

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If you frequently park in downtown New Canaan for work, shopping or dining, there’s good news: New parking machines are being installed Thursday at Morse Court and Park Street lots (two apiece), with single machines going to Locust Avenue, the Playhouse and Center School lots. The solar-powered Parkeon Strada Pal Rapide model machines will be a significant improvement over the old machines, according to New Canaan Parking Bureau Superintendent Stacy Miltenberg. “They are an improvement because the instructions are right on the screen and walks people through each step, the screens are larger, in color and will be easier to see even in direct sunlight,” Miltenberg told NewCanaanite.com. “Since [the parking machine company is] located in New Jersey, communication from the machines will be quicker as well as contact with the company will always be done during regular business hours. I believe they will be more user friendly overall.”

Miltenberg added that the new machines will still take coins (nickels, dimes and quarters) as well as credit cards. The 7-inch screens will show the rates, the maximum amount of time each vehicle is permitted to park in the lots, minimum coin and credit card amounts, and enforcement hours.