Montrose Boro woman: Parking meters a rip-off

BY REGGIE SHEFFIELD

Correspondent

A local woman recently ticketed while serving as a juror at the Susquehanna County courthouse vented her frustrations with the Montrose Borough Council Monday.

Jessie Cain, who told council members she has lived in Montrose since 1968, recalled that back then there were no meters at all. Cain would like council to return the borough to those days when people just parked in the middle of the street and visited the local stores, she said.

“And then I got a parking ticket. So now I have to pay five dollars, plus what you ripped me off on the parking meter; plus it said if I didn’t respond within four days I would be fined double,” she said.

Loading up the meter didn’t help as they max out at two hours, Cain explained, so parkers can’t load them up for several hours.

Council members were cold to her suggestion, saying that opening up free parking zones only invites downtown workers to park all day for free, which defeats the objective of drawing more shoppers downtown.

Councilwoman Judy Kelly asked, “You presented your case very nicely but I have a question for you: If we had no parking meters what’s to prevent the courthouse employees from taking all the parking spaces all day?”

“We’ve bagged the meters over Christmastime and you can’t park anyplace in town,” added council member Todd Chamberlain.

Cain persisted, saying that not providing for long term street parking discourages people who otherwise might choose to visit downtown businesses. Cain also pointed out that she could park her car at a strip mall all day without fear of being ticketed and that even if the county established some form of satellite parking, those like her who have difficulty walking would still face problems.

“I feel that I was ripped off. As I look at our town now, we don’t have much commerce. I assume that you want to bring commerce in, but you’re not going to bring them in by saying, come here, buy our stuff and then we’re gonna harass you with parking tickets. I would suggest very seriously you do away with all parking meters,” she said.

Suggestions such as having the county issue dashboard temporary parking permits for jurors and having the county provide jurors with parking immediately outside of the courthouse’s Maple Street entrance were aired.

Part of the dilemma outlined by borough officials during a brief discussion is the fact that while the borough operates the parking meters, the state owns the roads — which are maintained by PennDot — but the county owns the courthouse and town green areas. After some discussion, council president Sean Granahan gaveled the issue to a close and tabled the issue until council’s next meeting.

Council also tabled without taking any action an inquiry about the feasibility of establishing a Cannabis dispensary in Montrose made by Standard Farms of White Haven, Luzerne County, which the state Department of Health has permitted to operate a dispensary in White Haven.

According to a June 2017 Wilkes-Barre Times Leader article, Standard Farms was one of 12 companies statewide issued permits as Pennsylvania rolled out the manufacturing component of its medical marijuana program last year. The companies will grow marijuana indoors and process it into oil, tincture and cream forms to be dispensed medically. It will not be available in its plant form to smoke.