ANTIGO — At its meeting Wednesday night, the Antigo City Council’s Finance, Personnel, and Legislative Committee approved a motion to raise fines from $3 to $15 for vehicles that overstay two hour parking limits.
The change, which will also entail paying $20 for failing to pay the $15 fine within 48 hours, will go into effect if it gains the approval of the entire city council when it convenes in June.
Antigo Police Chief Dan Duley said the move to raise the fine amount — which he originally proposed be set at $25 — was sparked by a recent complaint from a downtown business owner about a driver that has been continually violating two hour parking mandates, but that the change is long overdue.
“As long as I’ve been around, this has never changed. It’s always been $3 for two hour parking. That’s the only parking citation that’s $3 in our current bond schedule. It will be an ordinance change because it’s written right in the ordinance to be $3 and it goes up to $7 after 48 hours. I would ask that it go up to $25, because $3 doesn’t pay for us to even enforce that. People don’t care about it,” said Duley, who went on to explain that parking tickets issued in other nearby communities are oftentimes considerably more hefty. “Wausau’s fine is $10. But yet I’ve heard in other communities — I have researched it — it’s $50 or $60.”
The $15 fine amount was settled on after Third Ward Alderman Tim Kassis said he believed $25 was too steep and suggested that a sort of smart parking kiosk system be considered.
“I think $25 is pretty high for this — I would entertain maybe $15, if that would suffice,” Kassis said. “I never got a parking ticket, but for two hours, I would think $15 would be sufficient. And then I’d like to talk to you about that kiosk thing, something where we could generate some revenue without creating a big problem. It works really good. We see them all over the place. It’s a revenue generator actually.”
Duley, along with Street Department Head Kirk Packard, said they would at least discuss Kassis’ kiosk idea.
While the $15 fine motion received the unanimous support of the committee, several officials noted that the health of businesses ought to be considered in the downtown area, where many of the two hour parking spaces are situated.
“What I can see happening with this with the downtown, say you have people that want to come down and want to come shopping downtown and you’re down there three, four hours,” Fifth Ward Alderman Mark Edwards said. “They’re going to get affected by that, and I can see a lot of the downtown businesses are not going to be happy with that, because they want people to come down, shop. If we deter that, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
Duley noted that his department currently enforces parking violations mostly on a complaint basis, which is not likely to change much if the proposal is enacted.
The city council’s final vote on whether to raise parking fines to $15 will be held June 12 at 6 p.m.
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