Also, must hire traffic attorney
Nineteen Cold Spring residents will be allowed to park at the municipal lot on Fair Street over the winter after the Village Board at its Tuesday (Nov. 12) meeting approved a lottery system for doling out spaces.
Drivers who are selected to receive permits will pay a $40 fee to park in the lot from Dec. 1 through April 15. Only one permit per address will be issued. The deadline for applications, available at coldspringny.gov or Village Hall, is Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 1 p.m.
In another vehicular development, Larry Burke, the officer-in-charge of the Cold Spring Police Department, told the board that as of Jan. 1, the village must hire an attorney to prosecute relatively minor traffic violations such as driving without a license or driving with a suspended license.
Putnam County prosecutors have handled such charges in the village’s traffic court but a state law enacted in April requires municipalities to take over. Burke said that in 2018, there were 17 moving violations handled by the county.
Burke also reported that officers responded to 82 calls for service in October and issued 51 traffic and 116 parking tickets. No arrests were made.
In other business …
■ Burke and Trustee Fran Murphy are taking a census of municipal signage to determine what updates and changes are needed.
■ Deputy Mayor Marie Early reported the Code Update Committee will present its final revisions to the board on Dec. 3.
■ Superintendent of Water and Wastewater Matt Kroog said the discolored water experienced by some residents recently was largely due to heavy rainfall during the week of Oct. 16.
■ The Historic District Review Board approved the installation of Tesla photo-voltaic roof tiles at 20 The Boulevard.
■ Requests to hold parades on June 6 for Putnam Pride and April 22 to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day were tabled pending the submission of plans.
I’m just wondering how the Village Board arrived at a $40 fee for four months when a $3 “annual” fee was suggested by a board member at the Oct. 1 meeting. The Spring Brook Condominium held an owners’ meeting on Oct. 22 and residents could not attend the follow-up meeting of the Village Board on Oct. 22. Furthermore, the lot is mostly or entirely empty every morning before 10 a.m. and every evening after 6 p.m. all year long, a fact that myself and others brought to the board’s attention three years ago. It has taken the board three years to observe this fact. This is just wrong, to charge residents to park in a lot that would otherwise be empty. Disgraceful — another tax on the locals.
The Cold Spring Village Board responded:
The $3 annual fee was for Monday through Friday, 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. The $40 fee for 24/7 parking from Dec. 1 to April 15 is based on costs of advertising the permit system, obtaining stickers to identify permit-holders, and lost revenue based on use of the municipal lot from Dec. 1 to April 15. The fee equates to less than $10 per month. If less than $10 per month is more than anyone wishes to pay for free, 24-hour parking: The Village Board extended free winter parking hours (Nov. 15 to April 15) to 10 a.m. daily.
Parking meter data does not show that the lot is mostly or entirely empty every evening after 6 p.m. during the period in any year. Since parking is free Nov. 15 to April 15, there is no data to determine use from prior years.