Headlines
First Day of Meters On Square Brings More Tickets, Less Traffic
Arnold Dormer, from Memphis, puts his quarters in the meter at the Square around 12:30 p.m. on the first day of the meters being in operation. / Photos by Andy Knef
On the first day of operation for the new parking meters on the Square, parking spots appeared easy to come by.
At the same time, downtown visitors seemed to be filling up the off-Square parking lots. As of about 12:40 p.m., Officer Kenneth Whitfield with the Oxford Police Department was posting his 15th ticket of the day for parkers who had failed to deposit their 25 cents for each 15 minutes of Square parking. “Despite all the warning they received some people seem to not have paid attention to the go-live date,” he said.
Kenneth Whitfield of Oxford Police Department says he has written 15 tickets already.
A few car lengths away a visitor to Oxford was well aware of the new meter system and was cautiously depositing his quarters in one of the machines. Arnold Dormer of Memphis was visiting with his fiancé, Rae Kirkup, whose daughter is an Ole Miss student and Rebelette. “I haven’t been to Oxford since I attended a ballgame in 1960 rooting on my school Memphis State (now University of Memphis),” Dormer said. “But I’ve been told, they’re very particular about paying these meters and I sure didn’t want to get a ticket.”
The parking meters are now in operation from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Sundays and federal holidays will be treated as free days. The fee to park on the Square is $1 per hour, and meters accept both quarters and credit cards.
Andy Knef is editor of HottyToddy.com. Andy can be contacted about this story at Andy.Knef@HottyToddy.com.
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Barbara
September 4, 2014 at 1:46 pm
Metered parking sets up yet another barrier to entry to Oxford’s historic town square. With the implementation of metered parking, it could potentially lead to an increase in cyclists biking to/from the square which would be a good thing for sustainable economic development.