On Juneteenth, at 1:31 p.m., I parked in the loading zone in front of my sister’s store on Main Street. My daughter works there and pays one hour’s worth of her salary each day to park, but my concern is of a different nature. I was parked in the loading zone with my hazard lights flashing as I was loading and unloading products and boxes for the store. Regardless, I had also tried to pay at a meter (just in case my car was still there after 2 p.m.).

The meter was not working and spit out a ticket saying 0 dollars. I have the ticket. Note: I always pay at the meters whenever I park on Main Street, so I know the meter was not working. Several tourists walked by me and said to me kindly (assuming I was a tourist) that the meters weren’t working, so I shouldn’t worry. One couple said they had tried several meters.

At 1:35 p.m., after I had completed the loading and unloading, I returned to my car to depart. There was a parking ticket for $35 with the time stamp of 1:33 p.m.

I walked the few cars down to the parking officer. I had to wait to speak to him as another tourist was trying to explain to him that the meters were not working. After this tourist unsuccessfully completed his conversation with the traffic officer, it was my turn. I explained my attempts to pay the meter, and I had parked in a parking zone with my flashers on and was unloading for a total of 4 minutes. He said he had gone to three stores, that he saw the flashers were on in my car and had attempted to find the culprit (me). He never went into the store I was unloading at, and I still wonder how he was so swift to have gone into so many stores!

He refused to revoke the ticket, even though he acknowledged that my flashers were on and it appeared I was unloading. He said I would have to go to court, and then said that I was also using the meter incorrectly and that the tourists who had questioned him were also “doing it wrong.”

I was shocked and disappointed by this experience. We want people to buy local. How can we if even our locals with stores on Main Street can’t even unload their cars?

I am sure our town is making big bucks just on parking tickets at $35 a hit, but at what future cost? You ask me to buy local? I want to, but I can’t if going to my hometown’s Main Street is like this.

Sarah Doyle

Keene Valley