STONE HARBOR – Police issued 3,151 parking tickets between May and August, a 6% drop over the comparable period for last year but still well ahead of the 748 tickets issued during that time period in 2022.

Parking tickets were a subject of significant discussion at Borough Council meetings in 2023. Representatives of the chamber of commerce and individual business owners urged the council to do something about the number that were issued.

They recounted stories of dealing with irate customers who came to shop in the borough and ended up with a parking ticket in addition to their purchases.

The borough has paid parking from May 1 to Oct. 1 in areas near its business district.

The problem began when the borough switched from a meters and kiosk system of paid parking to the smartphone app from ParkMobile. Some visitors to the borough were confused about where paid parking ended and free parking started. Some did not have the equipment or the wherewithal to manage a smartphone app. The result was a dramatic rise in tickets.

Some members of the council argued that the ticketed drivers represented a small percentage of all the transactions that went through ParkMobile from Stone Harbor.

From May through August of 2023, with the app in effect, police issued 3,359 parking tickets, a 350% increase over the prior year.

In the end the council opted to let it ride with ParkMobile, with the hope and expectation that a year of exposure would lead to better familiarity with the app and lower, more manageable parking ticket numbers in 2024.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.