Given that I know you’ve all been terribly concerned about the fate of my late night parking ticket, I thought I’ve give you the verdict: I lost. My written appeal was pretty simple, and I made four arguments:
1. Nothing was posted to indicate parking was not permitted
2. There were no police or other personnel to indicate that parking was not permitted
3. Snow removal had not begun at the time I arrived
4. The vehicle was parked legally for under two hours
The Bath PD’s response can basically be boiled down to: we don’t care, give us our $25. They cited the following local ordinance:
“From November 15th to March 15th of each year, no person shall park a vehicle on any street for a period of time longer than thirty (30) minutes, between the hours of 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM of any day, except physicians and other persons on bona fide emergency calls.”
That’s great, if you happen to know those are the rules. The appeal denial claims that they post flyers in lieu of actual signs that say “Don’t park late at night or we’ll tow your car,” but I sure as hell have never seen one.
The worst part is the 30 minutes, because given that I parked on Front St around midnight and my car was on a flatbed and ready to be towed away at about 12:45 they clearly made the decision and began the towing process before my alloted 30 minutes were up. Unfortunately, my only other recourse is to pursue the matter with the West Bath district court, which I don’t have time for.
So you win this one, Bath PD, but as Mr. Burns once told a vending machine, “You’ve made a powerful enemy.”
