ASHLAND — Ashland police are cracking down on parking violations in the downtown area, having written 45 tickets since January and 12 in the last month, according to numbers provided by Capt. Craig Kiley.
The Ashland Police Division has been receiving complaints about vehicles being parked outside of downtown businesses beyond the two-hour limit.
Since January, 45 tickets — priced at $15 apiece — have been written. Before then, parking enforcement was a bit more lax. Of those, 12 were written in the last month.
“These tickets are coming at various times of the day — and I want you to know that we do not want to write tickets. This is not a money-making scheme in this city,” Ashland Mayor Matt Miller said during a recent council meeting.
The Ashland Police Division does not have a dedicated team of parking enforcement officers. The city also does not have parking meters.
Rather, patrol officers have been tasked with looking for parking hazards and violations beyond the common two-hour limit.
“There are different ways to know (if a car has been parked beyond the limit),” Kiley said. “I’ve seen officers put a penny on a tire and come back later to check. Or they make a note about a vehicle being in front of such and such business and come back two-plus hours later and check it.”
Kiley said typically officers come back “considerably longer” than the two-hour mark to be “even more fair about it.”
Officers don’t just look for time violations, Kiley said.
“Parking can be hazardous sometimes. So they’re looking for cars blocking driveways, seeing if the car is parked too far from the curb. It’s more than just writing parking tickets,” he said.
Ashland’s downtown area allows for parking along streets. There are also various lots that allow parking up to eight hours.
Officers have also been more vigilant about speeding throughout the city as the weather warms and schools let out for summer, meaning more children are outside, Kiley said.
“We’re getting more complaints about speed,” he said, adding officers are being asked to have a presence in the areas in which complaints originate, even if they’re just doing paperwork in the area.
“If they have time, we ask them to run radar. But a lot of it is just being visible to get people to slow down,” Kiley said.
The mayor warned people that tickets will be written if speeders are caught.
“We’re trying to keep our families and you safe,” Miller said. “That is the reason that we would take on the idea of starting to issue some citations.”
