By Hector Florin
BRINY BREEZES — Parking tickets are causing a fuss in Briny Breezes. Corporation director Robert Purcell described the volunteer Boynton Beach group’s parking enforcement “an embarrassment — it’s harassment” at the Feb. 26 Town Council meeting. He and Town Mayor Roger Bennett also engaged in a brief verbal tiff during the discussion. Purcell said he once inadvertently forgot to give a guest — parked in Purcell’s driveway — a visitor’s parking pass. A volunteer parking enforcement specialist with Boynton Beach wrote down a violation. Purcell said he approached the same volunteer specialist with his guest-parking pass. The volunteer still gave the $30 ticket, Purcell said. Purcell also questioned where in the town’s laws it states it has authority to issue the parking tickets. Bennett affirmed that right belonged to the Town Council, which Boynton Beach Officer John Huntington confirmed the day after the Feb. 26 meeting.
“The Town Council has the say,” Huntington said. The work of the 18 volunteers “doesn’t have anything to do with the corporation.”
During a short exchange, Bennett snapped as Purcell approached the council dais and asked Alderman Nancy Boczon to find the law that gives the town that authority. “You tend to be fairly belligerent,” Bennett told Purcell. “Would you sit down? We’ve had enough of this, please.”
Two residents offered milder criticism over the handling of parking tickets. One said she was “mortified” when one guest got a ticket last April for not immediately placing a parking pass on the guest’s car. The town should revisit its parking ticket policy, if it indeed has control of the issue, she said. Another resident suggested the town was becoming “a police state.”
Boczon defended the role of the volunteer police force.
“They’re trying to do their job,” she said. In other developments from the Feb. 26 Town Council meeting:
• Traffic enforcement: Engaged in a question-and-answer session with a representative of Gatso USA, a company that could be chosen to install a two cameras at the town’s street light on Briny Breezes Boulevard. Gatso is one company seeking to install cameras at intersections in the city of Boynton Beach, and Briny Breezes is leaning toward piggybacking on the city’s selection. Mark Bedard, a regional sales manager for the 50-year-old Massachusetts-based company, said that according to initial studies, traffic on South Ocean Boulevard merits the installation of the cameras, which would photograph red-light runners. Installing the cameras would not cost the town money. Gatso would get about $30 from money collected from any violations, whose price the town has not set but could be approximately $125. “Our purpose for this is not money. Our purpose is safety,” Bennett said. The cameras are also capable of capturing photos of license plates when Amber Alerts are issued.
• Water meters: Discussed what to do to lower water leaks and overuse of water, and whether it’s feasible to install individual water meters at each home. Earl Harvel, president of Harvel Utility Construction, wrote in a memo that it would cost at least $738.50 per unit, a cost of more than $360,000 to the town. That price does not include work to upgrade the town’s codes and other materials necessary to switch.
• Council election and appointments: Due to lack of opposition there will be no official election on Tuesday. Mayor Bennett and Alderman Kathleen Bray have been automatically re-elected. No one ran for Town Clerk, so it is expected Bray will be appointed to that seat this month. A replacement still needs to be found for Alderman Thelma Gannon, who decided not to seek re-election.
Comments