The parking in Shepherdstown has been the topic of conversation between students and town members for years. After recent changes in parking ticket fees, it doesn’t seem like this subject is going to fade out anytime soon.
As many know, Shepherdstown has changed the game of parking tickets with the help of their new parking app “Passport” by giving white receipt-like parking citations rather than their old-school orange envelope tickets.
The change that was made effective Feb. 1 increases the parking ticket prices as much as $20. A regular ticket before the change was made used to be $10 if it was paid within the first 24 hours and then would increase to $20. Now, if you don’t pay the $10 within the first 24 hours, the price will increase to $30 and eventually to $60 if it’s not paid within a month.
My understanding of the increase in fees is because so many people were ignoring their tickets because they were either graduating soon and aren’t from the area so they didn’t think it mattered, or they were ignoring them because they just didn’t care.
Every day you can walk through the streets of the town and see the little white slips on the windshields of cars and the occasional car with a boot on its tire.
The parking apps have been installed to make it easier for students and town’s people to pay their meters so they will not be ticketed. It’s the owner of the vehicle who is responsible for paying their meter on time to avoid ticketing and it is also their responsibility to pay a ticket if they fail to keep up with their time.
If you have parking tickets dating all the way back to 2013, the Passport Company will send a collection agency after you instead of a casual letter in the mail.
The issue of the matter is that students and the community were failed to be informed of the changes in prices. There so far have been no announcements made by the Shepherdstown police department or the town and many people feel like they have been scammed by this change.
According to www.shepherdstown.us, the meters that allow two hour parking are on North Church Street, North King Street, and North Princess Street. The meters that allow four hour parking can be found on West High Street, and the meters that allow 10 hour parking are at the Shepherdstown Train Station.
Shepherdstown allows 90 minute free parking, which will now result in a $60 ticket rather than $40 if you don’t move your car after the time is up.
The 90 minute parking zones can be found on East and West German Street, South Church Street, South King Street, South Princess Street, North Mill Street, and West High Street.