After years of polluting Hanover’s water supply with asphalt waste and stealing property from disabled people the Town of Hanover is now going after unpaid parking tickets, some dating back from 12 years ago.
You can read the fully story on the Valley News website here. It was written by popular columnist Jim Kenyon, who left a great impression on me when I met him once back in High School. Some would say that his style of opinion writing influenced the “style” I’m writing in today.
Using new Orwellian software, “parking czar” Sgt. Jeff Ballard claims that there are 14,500 unpaid tickets totaling in $250,000 in late fees, with the oldest apparently being from 2005.
Also according to the article the Town has already used the software to shake down some citizens who dared park their vehicle on public property.
I mention the Town’s practice of asphalt waste dumping in the beginning of this piece not because I share Dave’s obsession with it but because they almost certainly dump it where they do to save on costs.
And as usual with governments they’re spending more than they’re taking in/saving so they have to find another source of wealth to plunder. In this case the Town decided to target motorists and Town Manager Julia Griffin is more than happy to be the crackdown’s cheerleader.
Kenyon describes her as having a “gleam in her eye” when informing him that “…there’s no statute of limitations on parking tickets”.
That’s probably as close as “I’ll get you my pretty! And your little wallet too!” we can get from Griffin.
It’s beyond me why people put up with parking meters; one of the main reasons people give for paying taxes is for the government to maintain the infrastructure and now we have to pay extra to use it?
My advice to anyone reading this who might be the target of this crackdown is to fight the ticket in court. If enough people bring their tickets to court it would quickly become too expensive for the Town to continue pursuing them. For more information on this course of action Robin Hood of Keene has kindly put together this flyer to explain the process (I might make a Hanover specific one in the soon future and update the article with it).
Robin Hooding, the practice of rescuing motorists from parking enforcers by feeding expired meters, is sort of a Keene thing but with “Queen” Julia the Worst stamping up enforcement I think that it might catch on in Hanover.
Who knows maybe I might try my hand at it.
Free Hanover 