By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.
The Winthrop Town Council last week approved a re-written set of parking regulations for the town, including the residential parking restrictions for overnight parking, which essentially legitimizes the parking regulations the town has been operating under for the past three years.
Additionally, the council voted to allow the outsourcing of parking enforcement to Municipal Management Associates, Inc. of Marlborough, which provides similar parking enforcement services in the city of Chelsea.
“Our goal was to address people’s perception of inequity and a lack of consistency in the parking enforcement system,” said Town Manager Rick White. “At the same time, we were mindful of the fact that we were competing for really important police man hours.”
White explained that by hiring an outside parking enforcement service, the town expects to be able to enforce the existing parking regulations, without adding any cost for the town, as the contractor will be paid out of parking receipts.
Additionally, he said that more consistent enforcement of the parking regulations would also provide more predictability for residents and likely greater compliance with the laws.
As an added benefit, the police department would be largely relieved of the responsibility of writing parking tickets, thus giving patrol officers more time to focus on other police duties.
The new parking regulations were drafted by the town’s Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and submitted to the Council’s Subcommittee on Rules and Ordinances, before being put to the council for a vote.
Luca DePhamphillis, 7, with his nina, Pam Evans, hooking a Charmander Pokémon necklace around her…
Retired Winthrop Police Lt. David Lessard, 69 died last Friday after a long battle with…
By Adam Swift The town is looking toward a possible debt exclusion vote in the…
By Adam Swift As part of the Annual Spring Forum on Tuesday night, Town Manager…
Winthrop Police Department Awarded Car Seat Distribution Grant Police Chief John Goodwin is pleased to…
By Adam Swift State and Chelsea officials, along with local nonprofit La Colaborativa, have spent…
View Comments
OK... I can totally understand the burden of writing parking tickets that is relieved from our already over worked police dept, but to out source this responsibilty to some unknown security company, who by the way pay thier employees by piece work...In other words they could care less if you have a valid sticker or not...I am sure at 2 or 3 in the morning they are not looking too hard to find it on your vehicle,,, these peope get paid per ticket written....Think about it....You get a 25 dollar ticket , you are in the right and have a valid resident sticker....Now you go to Town Hall and complain but are told you have to appeal at EB Court...What percent of people are going to take the time off work in order to do this?...Maybe 25%...This is what the company from Marlboro is counting on....I still can not understand why this town needs these parking stickers anyway...To me its just a money generater....If Winthrop must have this policy then someone has to come up with a more fair and effective enforcement system