Government

Town Upholds $30 Ticket Issued to Elm Street Worker

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Town officials last week upheld a $30 ticket issued to a local retail shop worker who overstayed in a Main Street parking space. The Parking Commission voted 4-0 to uphold the ticket that had been issued to Vanessa Brown. During an appeal hearing at the appointed body’s regular meeting, Brown said that she parked on Main Street after dropping off her child and intended on moving the car but got there just 15 minutes too late. 

Brown told the Commission that it was raining out on the Monday morning in question and that overstaying in the space “was not intentional.”

“I had to run into work to open the store and then I was going to move my car at the appropriate time and then got stuck with a customer,” Brown said at the Dec. 1 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. During the appeal hearing, commissioners asked whether Brown was working at the time the ticket was issued (yes), how far away from Main Street she works (at The Linen Shop on Elm Street, so not far), whether she always parks on the street (not always), whether she knows about the free parking permits in the Center and Locust Lots that are available for downtown workers (yes but it’s hard to get one from the business owner and a bit of a hike to the store), 

Commissioner Katie O’Neill said, “On behalf of merchants I will only add that taking customers’ parking is frowned upon.” 

Brown responded that she understood, though some Main Street merchants park on the street “all day without getting a ticket.”

O’Neill said, “They should not be tolerating it from each other, especially implementing our new parking initiatives….

Board of Selectmen

New Handheld License Plate Readers To Help with Parking Enforcement on Elm and South

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Town officials last week approved a free month-long trial and possibly longer contract with a Charlotte, N.C.-based company that will see parking enforcement officers get new handheld license plate readers or ‘LPRs.’

As it is, the enforcement officers are required to manually enter license plate numbers as they patrol the newly designated paid parking areas of Elm Street and South Avenue and “it’s getting very time-consuming,” according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. 

“If they have this handheld and they’re just scanning it as they’re walking, they’re not blocking anything—they’re not causing any kind of traffic,” Miltenberg told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Nov. 18 at Town Hall and via videoconference. She added that the town’s parking enforcement officers are “finding that by the time they get to one end of the street, they have to go back to the other end because [new] people are parking and it’s just not efficient.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of an amendment to the Parking Bureau’s contract with Passport Labs Inc. The company currently provides the town with its parking software program and equipment for enforcement and ticketing and permitting. After a free one-month trial, it would cost $500 per month to continue with the devices, and the selectmen vote allows the town to move into the paid plan. The selectmen asked how many license plate readers the Parking Bureau currently has (two but they’re on the vehicles), whether the contract is for $500 per handheld device or total (total), how long it will switch over (about one week), what’s the cancellation policy (cancel any time), whether the town is getting new devices or if Passport Labs is just opening up its software (both, the Parking Bureau is due for a device upgrade regardless), whether other towns are using the handheld LPRs (no but Darien is interested) and whether the handheld readers are storing data (no, it will work like the current LPRs, scrubbed every 30 days).

Government

Town: Mostly Positive Feedback on Change to Paid Parking on Elm

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Town officials say last month’s switchover to paid parking on Elm Street downtown has gone as smoothly as could be expected, with several compliments on the change as well as some frustrations and complaints. The Parking Bureau at Town Hall is getting “a lot of positive feedback with people coming into the office or calling saying that this was a good program, a good initiative that we started,” according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. “We are seeing space availability, we are seeing movement on Elm Street, and turnover,” she said during the Nov. 5 regular meeting of the Parking Commission, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So the initiative is accomplishing what the goal was.

Government

Town Adding ParkMobile, Passport to Mobile Parking App Options

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Town officials last week approved contracts with two companies that have popular mobile parking apps. The decision to offer motorists ParkMobile and Passport in addition to the town’s current mobile app for parking, PayByPhone, comes as the town prepares to change over to paid parking on the one-way stretch of Elm Street and sections of South Avenue downtown. 

The town hopes to have the changeover completed by the end of this month, according to Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg. Under the town’s plan, which is designed to free up coveted spaces for shoppers and diners, the Park Street Lot will switch to free parking. Bringing in two more mobile apps to pay for parking “gives the consumer a choice,” Miltenberg told the Board of Selectmen during its regular meeting, held Sept. 16 at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Government

‘I Love the Community’: New Canaan’s Parking Manager To Retire After 22 Years with the Town

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Stacy Miltenberg’s first job in New Canaan was as a police officer. She joined the New Canaan Police Department in 2003, after working as a cop in New York City for 20 years. 

Seeking a schedule that worked better for her, Miltenberg took a position in 2005 as an administrative assistant in the New Canaan Parking Bureau. “I love the community, I always have” Miltenberg told NewCanaanite.com on Wednesday afternoon, speaking through the Parking Bureau window at Town Hall where she interacts with town residents and visitors all day. “When I used to commute from my job in Queens, in the Bronx, I’d always come through New Canaan. My youngest son went to the Y when we first moved up here [to northern Westchester] for childcare, so I’ve known New Canaan very well.