By Charles Owens
For the Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Bluefield — The ongoing parking enforcement efforts in Bluefield also includes tickets for those who park illegally in designated handicapped parking spots within the city limits.
The city launched a renewed enforcement of two-hour parking spots in the downtown area on Wednesday, but is also looking for vehicles parked illegally in handicapped spaces, according to Bluefield Police Chief Dennis Dillow.
That active monitoring of handicapped parking spaces both in the downtown area and across the city limits is continuing. Any vehicle that is parked in a handicapped space without proper authorization will be ticketed.
Already numerous citations have been written to individuals who were illegally parked in designated handicap spots, Dillow said.
“It’s not something that you think you would have to do because who would go out and take up a handicapped spot when they don’t have a handicap problem,” Dillow said. “But they do it. So we’ve wrote numerous citations and that’s starting to correct itself.”
According to the city of Bluefield, motorist must respect designated handicapped spaces so that they remain accessible for individuals who are handicapped and depend upon them. Anyone found in violation will be ticketed with no exceptions being granted.
In some instances, people who aren’t handicapped are leaving their vehicles in handicapped spaces for an extended period of time, according to Bluefield City Manager Cecil Marson.
Others who may have a proper handicap sticker on their vehicle are still leaving their vehicles parked in handicapped spots for two or three days.
“They have the placards in their window, but they’re sitting down there for two or three days in a handicapped spot and we really need those spots for our residents,” Marson said. “They’re trying to go to the bank or go to Alorica or go to the RailYard, any of our other businesses in the city.”
Marson said the problem isn’t limited just to the downtown, adding that it is an issue at other locations as well, including the post office and at businesses across the city with designated parking spaces.
Parking problems were discussed at length during Tuesday’s meeting of the city board. At that meeting, Dillow referenced an instance where a vehicle was even illegally parked in a handicapped spot inside of the parking garage that is currently utilized for employees of Alorica.
The police department also is working to ensure that vehicles in the downtown area don’t abuse two-hour parking spaces. That enforcement effort began on Wednesday and is designed to ensure that visitors to the downtown have a place to park while visiting and shopping.
A quick review of the downtown area Thursday by the Daily Telegraph showed some two-hour parking spots that were open, although many others were occupied by vehicles.
Read more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here.
