Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
No more wiping chalk marks off tires to try to get more than two hours of parking in downtown Warsaw.
The Warsaw Police Department parking control no longer uses chalk to mark tires of vehicles parked in the downtown area during the day. Now, a computerized system keeps track of what vehicle is parked where in Warsaw and prints out tickets on the spot.
The old system of a "meter maid" walking the streets, putting chalk marks on tires is a thing of the past.
"The game playing that went on [to keep a parking space] just got more competitive," Warsaw Police Chief Craig Allebach said.
The parking control was probably the only part of the police department not computerized, said Allebach.
"The shoebox/manual system is not efficient," Allebach said of the old system. He said the administration of the tickets, notices and fines is now much more efficient.
"It's been a better system - not like the chalking system, inefficient and dirty," said Allebach.
"One thing we know, the majority of violations are those who work and live in the area," said Allebach.
He said the department has considered combating overdue parking by interpreting the ordinance to read two hours per day, not just two hours per space, as the ordinance is now interpreted.
The cost of the new system is estimated at $9,680 for the software and $2,938 for the equipment, including the hand-held computer and accessories. The training cost $1,250 each for two people to go to the company headquarters in Texas. The police department also purchased an initial supply of tickets and envelopes that brought the total for the system to $18,000.
Mary Lou Plummer, parking control officer for the city, explained the new system.
She walks down each street that is already coded and entered in the handheld computer she carries. Each block contains 10 parking spaces, and she types in the license plate number of each vehicle and which space it is in.
When she walks the same route two hours later, she enters the same information into the computer. If a vehicle is still parked in the same space, the computer automatically asks if she wants to print a ticket.
Plummer can enter not only the license number, but where the car was parked, the color and make of the car, and amount of the fine. She then places the waterproof and tearproof ticket into a pre-printed envelope that allows the driver to enclose the fine money and send it to the police department.
The old system forced Plummer to go through a box of tickets by hand without the advantages of the extra information. After a month, when fines double, she said she would have to go through them again and have a police dispatcher run the license plate number so she could get driver information and write them a letter.
The number of tickets issued has almost doubled with the new system, said Plummer.
"It took a little more time in the beginning," Plummer said of the new system. Now, she said she can walk behind a car and start marking the information in the computer while she is still approaching the parking space.
When she goes back to the police department, she puts the handheld computer in a cradle that allows it to input the information to a personal computer. The PC has a program that automatically sorts the tickets and keeps records.
Plummer warns downtown parkers who argue that they were parked in a space then moved and returned to the same space. The first ticket the driver receives with that excuse may be changed to a warning, but the next will be a ticket, said Plummer.
She encourages employees of downtown businesses to rent a parking space in one of the city parking lots and allow visitors and shoppers to use the parking spots near businesses.
"It's important to keep downtown vital and alive," Plummer said. She said that employees who move their vehicles from space to space on the street are defeating the purpose of providing parking for customers.
"The idea is to have space available for customers," she said.
