Hanover parking officials now have authorization to unleash a new weapon against car owners with outstanding parking tickets.
Last Monday, the Hanover Board of Selectmen approved an ordinance allowing Hanover parking enforcement officials to use "The Denver Boot," to make people pay their overdue parking tickets.
The Boot is a device parking officials can attach to the front end of a vehicle to immobilize it until the owner pays a fine.
"We passed the ordinance to specifically target a select very few chronic violators who continue to park in time-restricted parking spaces," Selectmen Kate Connolly said. "Those who do this hinder people who are coming in and out of town and are not employees."
The ordinance is Hanover's response to a state law passed last year allowing town officials to use immobilization devices on a car that has accumulated more than 10 parking tickets or more than $150 in parking fines.
"We have a small number of people, predominantly employees, parking at short-term meters in the downtown area in Hanover," Hanover Town Manager Cliff Vermilya said. "As a result, there have been a significant number of fines and parking tickets."
But Hanover does not currently own a Boot and officials do not know if they will purchase one.
Instead, Vermilya said officials hope the threat of a boot will be enough to curb illegal parking and convince people to pay overdue fines.
"This is more enabling legislation because it enables us to use the Boot, even though it will most likely not be used in the near future," Connolly said.
But College officials are not as lenient to parking violators.
"We have had Boots and have been using them for years before I came here 11 years ago," Parking Operations Coordinator Robin Guay said.
Guay said the College does not use the boot often, but resorts to it in certain situations. He said these include instances when a vehicle cannot be moved for reasons including bad weather conditions or when the vehicle's owner is unknown or a repeat offender.
The College's Parking Operations office is the only organization in the Upper Valley that regularly uses the Boot, Vermilya said. Most towns that own the boot rarely use it.
Hanover is often criticized by residents, employees and visitors for its lack of adequate parking.
"The parking situation stinks," said Wendy Handy, an employee at Murphy's Tavern on Main Street. "I park anywhere I possibly can. We have to feed our meters every few hours and we all have parking tickets. In fact, we have one person getting tickets every day."
But Vermilya said there are reasonable parking opportunities for employees who commute to work in downtown Hanover.
"Employees can park for free in parking spaces by Thompson Arena rented by the Town from the College, and then take a shuttle bus or walk a short distance to work," Vermilya said. He added that there are 10-hour metered parking spaces near the high school.
"But still a few employees choose to park in the short-term metered parking spaces in the prime shopping area, which causes problems," he added. "There are more than enough spaces."
"People simply want to be near their place of business. Often they play 'musical cars' by exchanging parking spaces in time-restricted zones," Connolly said.
"It's not the best situation, it's not as easy as parking next to the building, but employees here get around that problem," said an employee of the Dartmouth Bookstore on Main Street.
An employee at Hilde's Salon in the Galleria said employees have problems with the parking situation. "The girls run down every few hours to put a quarter in the meter. It can be annoying to have to do so sometimes."
The Board of Selectmen also passed legislation Monday to increase parking opportunities in the area.
The Selectmen agreed to adjust parking meters located in the lot behind Grand Union supermarket and on Maynard Street to allow people to remain in a space for 10 hours. These meters will still cost 25 cents per hour, Connolly added.
Other legislation passed by the selectmen expanded the jurisdiction of the parking enforcement officials to summon into town those individuals with outstanding parking fines, Connolly said.
"If people aren't regular visitors to the town, we usually can't collect them. But if they're in the area, we want to get them to pay. Currently, about 30 to 35 percent of parking fines are not paid.
"Currently, fines for parking too long in short-term parking spaces are $7, if more than three tickets are accumulated in one year, the fine goes to $20, and if the tickets are not paid within 14 days, the fine is doubled.
"We are aiming at a small group of individuals who have over $700 in parking fines with the Town with these new ordinances. If these measures fail to work, we must eventually resort to the court system, because some of the downtown employees seem to resist other methods," Vermilya said.
Hanover is not alone in its parking problems.
The situation is different in Lebanon, Lieutenant Matthew Hogan of the Lebanon Police Department said. While there are more stores and a shopping mall, the parking available is a public parking lot and municipal parking lot. In time-restricted spaces, enforcement officers make note of the vehicles that are parked in those zones.
"In the Hanover business district, parking is a more critical issue because the downtown area is congested. Hanover first resorted to using parking meters and now possibly the boot. While other towns also have parking violations problems, they have to be treated differently there," Hogan said.
