An initiative to offer free parking in downtown Pottsville to people 62 years old and over is moving forward.
On Friday morning, preliminary details on how the program would work were discussed by board members of the Pottsville Parking Authority at their regular monthly meeting. This initiative is part of a larger goal to make parking enforcement in the city not as “punitive” as it has been perceived to be in the past.
The Parking Authority has already met with T2 Systems, the makers of the handheld devices enforcement officers use on the street to issue tickets, to work out the logistics of the program.
While details of the program still need to be finalized, how the program would work is that Pottsville residents 62 and over would have to apply for a special permit with the Parking Authority. Their license plate numbers would be registered there.
When parking enforcement agents are on patrol and scan that plate, it will be flagged on their handheld devices as a senior permit and that parker would be granted two hours of free parking time. The agent would, at the time they scanned the plate, digitally “chalk” the vehicle.
If a vehicle that’s been digitally chalked remains in the same spot for more than two hours – Authority board members say they’ll likely extend a bit more of a grace period than a hard two hours – then a ticket will be issued.
However, it’s likely that persistent violators of the two-hour free parking time would have their permit revoked.
Pottsville Mayor Tom Smith asked Parking Authority board members to at least consider extending the free parking time to senior visitors to the city as well.
Solicitor Tom Campion told board members that once he prepares the legal paperwork to formally enact the finalized plans, he’ll have to run it by City Solicitor Gretchen Sterns to see if Pottsville’s codes or ordinances will have to be updated.
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