Plymouth Approves Handheld Parking Readers

Visitors to downtown Plymouth who exceed the time limit for their parking spaces now will be able to get off with just a warning, provided it is their first offense.

The Plymouth City Commission on Monday unanimously approved the purchase of handheld parking readers, which will eliminate the chalk-line method currently used to time how long a vehicle has remained in a parking space. A new fee schedule will be introduced for parking violators, including a warning ticket for first-time offenders.

Previously, parking officials would mark with chalk a straight line from the tires of parked vehicles to the pavement of the parking lot while sweeping through the area to indicate which vehicles have overstayed their time limits.

The new handheld devices, purchased from New Jersey-based ParkTrak for $18,294 for two units, training and installation, offer license plate recognition and will work with the city's accounting and police information computer systems.

City Manager Paul Sincock said the devices could be in service by late summer.