Like many others who have found our beautiful seaside town, I take great pride in residing in the friendly, supportive and lovely area we call home in Lewes.
Indeed, based on the ongoing construction and development of residences, schools and other supportive endeavors, there are many who are gravitating to our beautiful area.
My last letter to the editor was to convey great pride in our state’s support for the homeless through the development of the new Pallet Village and social support systems for our compromised populations. This indeed has been a great success and a venture that we should be very proud of initiating.
Unfortunately, this letter is to express my dismay at a message being conveyed by an exorbitant charge for a parking ticket. I didn’t realize last evening when my parents came to town for a visit that parking fees are currently in effect for the season (my bad). We parked in the public lot downtown to walk around our beautiful little downtown; only to return to a parking ticket of $40. I can easily pay the ticket and do not have an issue with paid parking, but I was, quite frankly, stunned at the amount. How ungracious!
It does not take much journeying around town to realize how stunning our properties are and how fortunate those of us are who are lucky enough to reside here. I don’t believe that it would be a stretch to surmise that we are a well-funded community and state.
What sort of message are we conveying to folks when we enjoy the good graces that we do while charging $40 for a parking ticket! Shame on us as a community, for I feel that is outrageous and portrays us as ungrateful as well as greedy. Do we, as a community, need to charge that sum for a parking ticket?
Coincidentally, we ran into an out-of-town visitor in the process of reparallel parking his vehicle as he had been cited for not parking close enough to the curb. Apparently his vehicle was too far out in Second Street.
As a long-standing member of this community, this is embarrassing to me. This does not represent the values that I have come to love here. I think it lacking in any graciousness and, quite frankly, outrageous. I find it very difficult to believe that we need the funding generated from the amount of those tickets. What kind of message are we sending?