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Grand Island safety board weighs towing, enforcement options after parking-ticket review
Summary
Board members reviewed last year’s parking-ticket data, learned town tickets cannot suspend licenses, and discussed tougher local measures — including automatic towing after repeated violations — to address unpaid parking fines and snowplow/safety issues.
Board members reviewed local parking enforcement limits and discussed stronger town-level remedies after hearing that unpaid town parking tickets cannot be tied to a driver's license suspension.
“There's nothing you can do as far as suspending a driver's license on someone who doesn't answer a parking ticket that's been issued under the town code,” Speaker 3 said after contacting court resources, noting the limitation of town authority and prompting discussion of alternate enforcement tools.
Speaker 3 shared figures from the prior year: “There was 91 tickets ... and 79 of those were answered. So 12 went unpaid,” an accounting members called manageable but in need of policy fixes to discourage repeat offenders.
Speaker 1 proposed adding local enforcement 'teeth' by making towing automatic after repeated offenses: “If you have more than 2 tickets, we're gonna tow you. Then go to Marty's and pay it,” Speaker 1 said, framing towing as a locally administered penalty rather than a state-level sanction. Members suggested checking practices in nearby towns such as Tonawanda and revisiting ordinances to allow local towing and storage fees.
The board also raised adjacent traffic concerns: snowplow operations impeded by illegally parked cars, intersection safety at Whitehaven and Stony Point, and early-morning truck Jake-brake noise affecting residents. Members asked staff to explore legal language that would allow towing or other local remedies for repeat parking violations and to confer with the town attorney on enforceability.
Next steps: staff contact the town attorney for options to add towing/storage as a local enforcement penalty; members suggested surveying other municipalities' enforcement language and returning proposals to the next meeting.
