The Police Commission meeting on Thursday. (Photo via Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Cortland police department heads discussed the current parking situation in the downtown area at the City Police Commission meeting on Thursday.
With the city a few weeks into its new digital parking system, deputy police chief David Guerrera said there are “some bugs to work out,” but overall enforcement has been “going pretty good.”
A breakdown of the city’s new digital parking system is here. Further details can be seen on the city’s website.
Cortland police chief Paul Sandy said on Thursday that the new parking system has prompted his department to “print out a lot of warnings.”
“There’s still some confusion on where to park or when to park,” Sandy said, with Guerrera adding the issue mainly stems from the city’s parking lots.
According to the city’s website, parking on Main Street remains free, with free short-term parking (two hours) still available in downtown parking lots. Parking permits provide a designated lot for individuals at $30-a-month.
Guerrera mentioned that the parking permit process is “going well.” A minor issue, he added, is scanning car registrations that are close to expiring.
“(There are) just a few things that are taking longer than we anticipated, but we expect to iron them out soon,” Guerrera said.
According to a breakdown of parking tickets issued on a monthly basis, the month of August racked up 264 parking tickets. It’s the most that the city has seen in August since 2019, with 422 parking tickets handed out in August of that year.
With the ongoing construction projects in Cortland’s downtown area, Sandy said he was surprised the total of parking tickets were up. He noted that since his department has been lenient with parking tickets during construction, most of the tickets issued are taking place in the evening.
Eight months into 2023, records show that city police have issued 2,876 parking tickets. In 2022, over 5,000 tickets (5,365) were issued, which was the most in Cortland since 2014 (5,115).
