Parking violations in Hanover have raised $387,395 this fiscal year, with the Hanover Police Department handing out 28,414 parking tickets between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006. These violations included expired meters and prohibited parking in handicapped spaces, on sidewalks and in no-parking zones.
Because there are not enough parking spaces on campus for the roughly 4,100 student, faculty and staff cars registered with the College, many park in Hanover during the week. This proves difficult for some because there are not many metered spaces available on Hanover streets, and there is a two-hour parking limit for these spaces Monday through Saturday. No parking tickets are given on Sundays.
Tickets from the Hanover Police Department range from $10 for an expired meter to $30 for prohibited parking to $50 for booted or towed cars to $250 for a handicapped spot violation. Fines are doubled if the ticket is not paid within 14 days and an additional $10 is added to all fines after 28 days.
Once a person reaches $90 in fines, they receive a warning letter stating that their accumulated fines must be paid within five days or their car can be booted. This means that a clamp is placed on one of the vehicles' tires to prevent it from moving, forcing the driver to pay for the violations.
Hanover Police booted 28 cars last year.
The money raised through parking tickets is not put in the town's general fund, but is instead kept separate in a fund that oversees parking lot and road maintenance, construction of new parking garages and the parking operation staff, according to Hanover Police Lt. Patrick O'Neill.
Dartmouth Parking Operations, which patrols the Dartmouth campus, doles out an additional 11,000 parking tickets each year on average.
Funds raised by Dartmouth Parking Operations are also deposited in a specific fund that contributes to parking and lighting maintenance in addition to the non-profit organization that runs the Advance Transit shuttle.
Three Dartmouth Parking Operations officers patrol campus each day for registered cars parked outside their specific lots and non-registered cars anywhere on campus.
"Students who park in A-Lot aren't supposed to park on campus in the core area where faculty and staff are parking during the day," said William Barr, director of Fiscal and Auxiliary Services for the Department of Facilities, Operation and Management. "If students park near that area and are registered, they are fined $25. Those that aren't registered pay $50."
If students amass a couple hundred dollars in fines, the charges appear on their Dartmouth administration account after a two week period.
Students are not allowed to check in for another term until the parking fines are paid.
Students are allowed to park anywhere on campus after 5 p.m. as long as they are in a valid parking space. The most common areas where violations occur are around the Collis Center, Thayer dining hall and the fire lane that runs behind the East Wheelock Cluster.
Some students like Mary Beth Westerman '08 received multiple parking tickets last year due to unregistered cars. Though she paid the college over $200 in parking fines, Wasterman said she recognizes the importance of maintaining order on a small campus with such a large faculty and staff.
"Parking Operations has a really tough job to do, considering all the professors and staff who have to park on campus everyday," Westerman said. "Just because I'm lazy doesn't mean I should be able to park on campus when I can park in A-lot and walk to class."
Both Hanover Police and Dartmouth Parking Operations say they try to be flexible when issuing fines, especially when they witness the driver running to get change to feed a meter or returning as the ticket is being written.
Circumstances like these account for many of the 2,221 tickets canceled by Hanover Police in the last fiscal year.
