Government

Commission Voids $30 Ticket for Obstructing a Fire Hydrant

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Town officials this month voided a $30 fine issued to a restaurant worker who had been ticketed for parking too close to a fire hydrant on Main Street. Edith Mendoza told members of the Parking Commission during her Aug. 4 appeal hearing that a police officer working early that Sunday morning had instructed her on where to park, due to a shortage of available spots during a popular car show downtown. 

According to Mendoza, some of those who attended Caffeine & Carburetors on April 24 kept Spiga Restaurant very busy, and she was unable to get back outside from about 8:30 a.m. to past 11 p.m.

“We were busy all day,” Mendoza said during the hearing, held via videoconference. 

Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg said, “It seems like one of the police officers directed her to park in a certain area, and that area happened to be a fire hydrant. She parked there and went to work and it got very busy. What happened in the meantime, the police officer’s shift changed and other officers came on, she was unable to move her car because the restaurant was very busy and she was ticketed for blocking a fire hydrant.”

The ticket was issued at 5:35 p.m., records show, at Main and Cherry Streets.

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Town Upholds $150 Ticket Issued to Local Woman Who Parked in Disabled Space

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Town officials last week voted unanimously to uphold a $150 ticket that had been issued June 27 to a New Canaan woman for parking in a disabled space. In a written appeal submitted to the Parking Commission, Angelique Pesce said she had been “blocked” in the disabled space by a parking enforcement officer at the time the ticket was written, at 9:20 a.m. that Monday. “Falsely trapping a vehicle in a spot handicap or otherwise is unacceptable while I am still present to wait for a spot to open,” Pesce said in the written appeal. “No criminal restraining like blocking my vehicle is appropriate for parking tickets.”
Yet she wasn’t in the car at the time the violation was cited, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. “She was not in the car at the time the ticket was issued, and you can see that by the picture,” Miltenberg said during the Commission’s Aug.

Around Town

‘As a Law Firm Owner I Take the Law Very Seriously’: Parking Ticket Appeals

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The New Canaan Parking Commission recently received the following appeals letters from ticketed motorists. 

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“Ticket says 15 minute parking zone but sign says 30 min parking. Also was previously a 2 hour zone.”

—$25 for overtime parking in 30-minute space on Locust Avenue, at 11:07 a.m. on June 23 (Wilton resident)

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“I went to go pay a dollar in quarters in parking space 155 around 9:20 a.m. to buy me some time because all I had was a dollar in coins on me at the time machine was jammed so I was not able to pay I ran inside my job over at Lepain Quotidian to get 3 dollars in charge to park at the back spots where it is 3.00 dollars for 6 hours at 9:23 a.m. my ticket was issued. I did not have time to resolve call and complain about the machine or to even pay but I had all intentions to pay.”

—$25 for unpaid space in Playhouse Lot at 9:23 a.m. on July 15

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“Dear Court: Badge 304 blocked my vehicle not permit me to exit a handicap spot that I wanted to enter to clear traffic on Elm Street while waiting for a spot to open. I was forced to remain in the spot and physically blocked by the officer on the street. This is the second time this officer has used her body, words, vehicle and badge in an unprofessional manner.

Government

Town Upholds $30 Ticket Issued to Uber Driver

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The Parking Commission at its most recent meeting upheld a $30 ticket issued to a woman for obstructing the travel lane on East Avenue on a Tuesday afternoon last month. Jacqui Locher said in a written appeal that she’d stopped outside Greenology around midday on April 19 while her Uber partner entered the store to collect an order. “I was there for less than 2 minutes before I was approached by an extremely rude woman with a horrible attitude pointing her phone camera at me,” Locher said in her written appeal. “I rolled down my window and told her I was only stopped here for a minute, we had an order already called in that we were just picking up.”

Yet before the order had been collected, the parking enforcement officer wrote the ticket, Lochi said. During the Commission’s May 5 meeting, Parking Director Stacy Miltenberg said that the officer had asked Locher to move “and she did not move.”

“She was saying that she was waiting for somebody and she was asked a couple of times to move,” Miltenberg said.

Government

Group Calls for Creation of Formal Committee on EV Charging Stations

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A citizen-led group is asking New Canaan’s highest-elected official to appoint a formal committee to plan for creation of electric vehicle charging stations in town. The group, which includes Leo Karl III, Chris Hering and members of the Department of Public Works, has met informally to talk about EV charging stations, according to Laura Budd, chair of the Parking Commission. Karl “is working something up send to the first selectman that we’d like to get an official committee working, because it’s so complicated.”

“There are so many options with the EV chargers,” Budd said during the Commission’s May 5 meeting, held via videoconference. “There is one going up at the Town Hall Annex, the former Outback [Teen Center], which is great and then they are hoping from some rebates they get from that to put the second one in Morse Court. So we are trying to get ahead of it but it’s so complicated.