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Welcoming Visitors

Editor, News-Register:

Parking?

Most of us don’t have to worry about a parking fine because we rarely, if ever, fail to feed the meter.

That being said, what about a visitor to Wheeling who parks at a meter with a little time on it, and runs into a store to make a purchase. Unfortunately for him or her, the meter maid, or man, just happens to be working that area and comes upon the expired meter moments before the customer leaves the store. That customer/visitor finds a $10 ticket on his windshield and realizes his visit to the friendly city has cost him more than he anticipated.

With modern technology, I question why we can’t provide the meter maid/man with hand held data recorders (I’ve seen them on “Parking Wars”). If they had such a device, perhaps we could type in a violator’s license plate number and it would reveal if this particular vehicle had ever received a parking ticket. If not, as the friendly city, we could then issue a warning ticket for this first offense. Writing on the ticket could explain that a future violation for this license number will result in a fine of $3, and each subsequent parking fine would be doubled. Example: Second offense would cost $6 and the third offense would cost $12 and so on until at some point the vehicle is subject to be towed.

We also need to make it convenient to pay any ticket, by providing lock boxes throughout the downtown where fines can be deposited.

Next, I wonder why the city administration didn’t have the foresight to construct an aerial walkway from the intermodal parking garage to the Wesbanco Civic Center when it was recently renovated. Seems to me it makes a lot of sense from a convenience standpoint. Since they didn’t, maybe a cheaper solution would be to purchase a portable, canvas covered, walkway that could be set up between the garage and the arena entrance.

A comment I’ve heard repeated on a number of occasions is it’s tough to get out of the intermodal parking garage after an event due to the traffic signal at 14th & Main Street. I responded by saying we need to station a police office to direct traffic at that signal when an event is over; only to be told that request was made, and someone (either in the police department) on higher in the food chain (I don’t claim to know who) refused to provide that logical approach to facilitating traffic flow out of the garage. You would think that the city administration would arrange for an officer to direct traffic as standard operating procedure, maybe that makes too much sense. I think the city needs to focus on making visiting the arena for an event, a seamless and enjoyable occasion.

P. Jacobs

Wheeling

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