HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – There won’t be meter maids coming to downtown Holland, but there may be those who are not wearing police blue writing tickets soon along 8th Street.
The City Council last night approved an ordinance amendment that would allow Downtown Development Authority Staff who are not members of the Public Safety Department to issue citations if they spot certain parking violations. According to the city attorney’s office, this would save “police resources in having to respond to these infractions.” Sally Laukitis of the Holland Area Visitors Bureau admitted some mixed feelings about this, saying in her weekly appearance on “WHTC Morning News,” “It is a sense of frustration, and we see it in the lot behind our office. We built this wonderful downtown, and if you were living in a bigger community, you would have to walk maybe a block, maybe two blocks to get to your place of work. I see both sides of the coin.”
Staffers who would be authorized to write these tickets will be trained by the Public Safety Department in all aspects of administering these duties, which should begin later this spring.
