Dewey offers tips to avoid parking tickets
Dewey Beach officials say some visitors are getting parking tickets even though they think they paid to park.
Officials are offering some simple tips to avoid tickets.
Most parking in Dewey is by permit, with parallel and perpendicular spaces located throughout town and marked by sign. Visitors can purchase daily, weekly and weekend permits 24 hours a day at the kiosk in front of Town Hall, 105 Rodney Ave.
Parking by ParkMobile app is available on all streets, with kiosk and coin meter parking on select streets.
Town Manager Scott Koenig said in Dewey, visitors using ParkMobile or kiosks must pay for parking using their vehicle license plate number, not a parking space number.
“Dewey Beach’s geography and landscaping presents a very unique parking situation in parts of town, so we can’t do pay-by-parking space,” Koenig said. “We want to ensure people don’t get tickets needlessly when they have actually paid for parking.”
Parking/Code Enforcement Supervisor Merle Leonard said visitors often enter license plates incorrectly. Some drivers have several vehicles programmed into the app and select the wrong one when parking.
“They must look at their vehicle registration to make sure they input their legally designated license tag,” she said. “They have to include all letters on their plates, not just the numbers, and that includes the CL or PC on the tag.”
Many users forget to include the letters as part of their tag number, so when code enforcement officers scan the license plate or input the entire plate number into their mobile enforcement app, the plate number does not show up as paid, and a ticket is issued.
Similarly, when a ParkMobile user selects the wrong vehicle when paying for parking, the plate number does not show up when scanned and a ticket is issued.
“We really want to educate the public about these mistakes and how they can avoid them, to make it easier on them and us,” Leonard said.
Call Dewey’s parking department at (302) 227-6170 or go to townofdeweybeach.com.
