Parking tickets just a cost of doing business?

The Sanbornton man who has accumulated 35 unpaid parking tickets for violations in downtown Laconia said yesterday that he just considers the tickets an "unfortunate cost of doing business" here. Ian Raymond, owner of a photography studio located at 616 Main Street, said that over the past couple of months three of his customers have told him the 2-hour parking limit makes Laconia a very unfriendly town to do business in. And he agrees.

"If the police department would patrol the (Laconia Mall) parking garage instead of spending their time writing parking tickets people might use it," Raymond said, adding that he won't park in the garage because of security concerns.

Asked why he has not paid the $450 he owes the city at this point, Raymond indicated it was a form of protest. "You just take your time to pay," he said.

The amount Raymond owes the city pales in comparison to the $980 that Gilford resident Joseph Long owes for 76 unpaid parking tickets. Long owns Pro Displays, a business located on the second floor of the building at 635 Main Street. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Lt. Mike Moyer told the Police Commission last week that special attention is being paid to "four or five habitual (parking) offenders" in the downtown area. He did not mention any names but The Daily Sun has since reviewed police records that indicate Long and Raymond are numbers one and two on the list.

Moyer said Long was habitually parking in the municipal lot located directly across Main Street from his place of business. Parking in that lot, like most of downtown, is free of charge but there is a two-hour time limit.

Police finally got Long's attention, Moyer said, by having his car towed about a month ago. Moyer said he advised Long to start parking in the municipal lot located between City Hall and the post office and he believes that might be happening because Long has largely stopped accumulating new tickets.

The City Hall lot has been expanded and there is no time limit there, said Moyer, "but people just don't want to walk". He said he also considers the lack of use of the parking garage a convenience issue, not a security issue, because there's no real statistical evidence to suggest otherwise.

Moyer said parking enforcement officers have told him that Raymond's Plymouth mini-van is typically parked right in front of his storefront. And that's exactly where it was Friday afternoon.

Newspaper accounts of the police department's parking scofflaw list apparently had an effect on the woman who was the number three offender. Moyer said the woman, an employee of a downtown business, called him to confirm that she was on the list and then headed right over to City Hall to pay her fines.

Chief Tom Oetinger has made it clear that police have the legal authority to issue a court summons for each and every unpaid parking ticket. "It is our intent to vigorously pursue individuals who repeatedly fail to respond to parking violations," he said.

The fine for parking violations in Laconia ranges from $10 (overtime) to $50 (handicap space) and there is a $5 penalty added if the fine is not paid within seven days. Tickets may be appealed directly to the police department within 72 hours of the time the ticket was written.

Clerks in the tax collector's office at City Hall have the responsibility for collecting parking fines and until recently they had no computer program that allowed them to track accounts receivable. Now, Oetinger said, the clerks have direct access to the police department database so they can easily determine which tickets haven't been paid.