Town officials last week upheld a $75 ticket issued to a West Haven woman who’d parked in front of a fire hydrant on Cherry Street.
Mary Chegwidden told members of the Parking Commission during a March 10 appeal hearing that she had only parked by the fire hydrant in the area of 111 Cherry St. for about five minutes “so I could deliver to a client, DB Fine Wines.”
“I had some heavy boxes because I had some marketing materials and some heavy papers,” Chegwidden said during the hearing, held via videoconference. “So I wanted to drop it off to them quickly.”
The ticket had been issued at about 1:20 p.m. on Jan. 26, a Wednesday.
The Commission voted 4-1 to uphold it. Chair Laura Budd, Secretary Jennifer Donovan and members Nancy Bemis and Marley Thackray voted to uphold. Commissioner Drew Magratten voted to void it.
Magratten said he’s not used to driving in Connecticut, where fire hydrants aren’t necessarily on the sidewalk right along the street.
“There’s no yellow paint on the curb,” he said.
Magratten added, “I am going to have a protest vote and appeal all of these until we get new striping on the streets and send a message to the leadership that if we are going to have streets that are willy-nilly marked and charge people for not up keeping the streets, I’m not going to be a part of that.”
Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg and some commissioners noted that the hydrant itself is clearly visible from the street and that Chegwidden parked in an area that is marked off with yellow hash marks in the pavement, indicating that it’s illegal to park there.
“It’s lined very clearly,” Miltenberg said.