Wayne Shop Owner: 'Aggressive' Ticketing Hurts Business

Around here, parking meters are a fact of life. But some business owners in downtown Wayne are saying that Radnor Township's ticketing of cars parked at meters is too "aggressive."

Chris Hupfeldt, owner of Competitive Edge Outfitters on West Avenue has created posters that he has distributed to many other storefronts that warn customers to mind their parking meters.

“I see the effects of it all day long,” Hupfeldt told Radnor Patch of what he says is “aggressive” ticketing. “They go out of their way to give a ticket,” he said of the meter inspectors.

Radnor Township Police Department currently employs one full-time inspector and two part-time inspectors, one of which was recently injured on the job and is unable to work.

“I love Wayne, and I think the township does a great job making Wayne what it is,” Hupfeldt said. But, he said, “When people get tickets constantly they get a very bad taste.”

Police Superintendent William Colarulo said it’s not complicated: “If there is no money in a meter or someone did not put money in a kiosk, you get a ticket. It’s as simple as that.”

He said there are no “quotas” for inspectors to make, and there is no demand from himself or township manager Bob Zienkowski that inspectors be “aggressive.”

“If there’s not money in a meter chances are you’re going to get a ticket,” he said. “Are we lying in wait? Absolutely not.”

But Hupfeldt says the staff can go further in helping people to avoid tickets than what he has seen. Could they pop into his store and ask, “Who owns this car? They’re going to get a ticket?” If there is one minute left on a meter, Hupfeldt says the inspectors wait there to give a ticket.

He said he gives out more than $10 a day in quarters to people who may not even be his customers.

“People don’t get a chance [to get change],” said Mike Ellis, owner of Teresa’s on North Wayne Avenue. “It’s upsetting customers. People get turned off.”

Radnor Township’s meters cost 25 cents per half hour from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Colarulo said there are many legitimate cases in which a ticket can be canceled by appealing to the superintendent. It happens all the time.

Zienkowski told Radnor Patch that he gets complaints about ticketing a lot—complaints that the township does not enforce ticketing enough, especially in the case of meter feeding by business owners and employees.

“We’re enforcing what is the law,” Zienkowski said. “If they have changes they would suggest to us… we’re open to that. Our intent is not to hurt the businesses at all.”

As for the threat that business owners may hear from people about never coming back to Wayne after getting a ticket, “I’ve seen more people coming to Wayne now than I have over three years.”

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