STONE HARBOR – The borough’s parking enforcement division issued 289 violations in May. That can be viewed as good or bad news.
Compared to the 564 tickets issued in May 2023, when the borough rolled out its ParkMobile parking app initiative, this May showed an almost 50% decline.
But compared with the pre-ParkMobile days of May 2022, when a total of 33 tickets were issued, the residents and visitors of Stone Harbor are still seeing an almost 800% increase in summons numbers.
After 2023, a year in which a record number of parking violations were issued, the Borough Council made the decision to stay the course, expecting that individuals would have learned from that experience.
New signs were ordered and put up, and street striping was done to make paid parking areas in or near the town’s business district more visible. The feeling was that people would get accustomed to the app and things would return to normal.
The numbers suggest that for some motorists things went as the council predicted. For others, the app still appears to be a puzzle. With an older county population in which dedication to smartphones is less pronounced than it is for the younger crowd, there may still be a problem when payment alternatives are not present.
June’s numbers, when they are available, may tell the tale. Data from the joint municipal court located in Avalon showed that last year the borough issued 893 parking tickets in June, followed by 1,247 in July. In July 2022 there were 317 violations recorded by the court.
Last year the problem of an exceedingly slow adjustment to the ParkMobile environment led to pleas for options from local businesses and the chamber of commerce.
Stone Harbor even paid for part-time staff assistance at the municipal court because of the surge in summonses.
Paid parking in Stone Harbor begins May 1 and runs until Oct. 1. The number of violations this May was part of Police Chief Thomas Schutta’s monthly report to the council at its June 18 meeting.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
