City council to vote on raising downtown parking fines

ANTIGO — The Antigo City Council’s Finance, Personnel, and Legislative Committee on Wednesday night approved an ordinance change to raise fines from $3 to $25 for vehicles that overstay two-hour parking limits downtown from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Saturday.

Under the revised ordinance, which before going into effect must be approved by the entire council when it convenes in July, drivers receive tickets for remaining in two-hour spaces too long. Fines will also be increased to $35 if not paid within 48 hours.

Antigo Police Chief Dan Duley said the change should decrease violations of two-hour parking limits.

“It hasn’t been updated in many years, and the $3 parking ticket is really ineffective for the parking violations, for the time violations in the downtown area,” Duley said. “There was a recent complaint of some downtown parking, so I thought now was the time to get that changed and bring it up to make it a more effective enforcement than what we had with a $3 ticket.”

At an April meeting, Finance, Personnel, and Legislative Committee members suggested raising the fee to $15, but the amount was increased to $25 after discussion at a Public Works Committee meeting on May 22.

Fourth Ward Alderman and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Bauknecht said that to his understanding, issues involving vehicles overstaying two-hour parking limits actually are uncommon on 5th Ave. and in the downtown area.

“A lot of it was isolated abuses where somebody parked there all day long,” Bauknecht said. “What they’re trying to do is trying to encourage people to use the municipal lots and use the spots in front of businesses for employees. The way it was set up before, the fine for parking downtown was like $3. It wasn’t even worth the bother for the police to pursue it.”

The new ordinance will also increase fines for parking in handicapped spaces from the current $30 to $100, an amount which will increase to $125 if not paid in the first 48 hours.

Fines for overstaying two hour parking limits are the lowest in the city.

“All of our other parking tickets were at the $25 level already. It’s just that two-hour parking restriction from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday on streets that was $3. So it brings it back in line with all our other parking tickets,” Duley said. “The only difference then is now the handicapped one is increased.”

The new ordinance will go into effect if it is passed by the common council. It will likely appear on the agenda for the July 10 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall.