Council adopts new parking fines
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Parking fines in the city of Ketchum’s two-hour zones
are now on an incremental scale, topping off at $40 tickets for multiple
infractions.
The Ketchum City Council on Tuesday of last week
unanimously approved the new parking fines after holding three hearings on
the topic in which public sentiment was mixed.
Two-hour parking zones are enforced Monday through Friday
between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. For years, $10 fines have been the norm.
The new fines are on an exponential scale based on the
number of infractions attributed to a vehicle inside a year’s time. The
first infraction prompts a warning from the police department. Thereafter,
a $10 fine is followed by $20 and $40 fines for the second, third and
fourth infractions.
For a fifth violation when four or more citations are
unpaid inside a 12-month period, and one of the tickets is delinquent by
90 days or more, a vehicle will be towed, costing the owner $90 plus
administrative fees and payment of all unpaid parking tickets before the
vehicle will be returned.
Over the past two weeks, the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of
Commerce conducted a survey of its member businesses on the issue. Chamber
executive director Carol Waller said there was "no clear-cut way
people felt."
She said that of the 79 responses she received, about half
favored the new enforcement regulations.
Ketchum police chief Cal Nevland, who has pushed for the
new fine structure, said the new fines will help make parking available
for downtown-area business customers.
"The whole purpose of two-hour parking is to make
parking available to customers of core businesses," he said.
"The majority of the people who need to park there all day are
parking outside the core, but there are a few who are trying to beat the
system and not walk three blocks.
"They’re willing to take the chance with $10 fines.
They’ll now have to weigh the possibility of a $40 fine against walking
several blocks."
