Parking in Rockville Centre now free after 6

Following through on a promise he made during his campaign, Mayor Francis Murray announced at the July 5 village board reorganization meeting that Rockville Centre police and auxiliary officers will not enforce parking meter violations in the downtown business area after 6 p.m.

“This takes the village back to where it was two years ago,” Murray said. “No one received parking tickets, and then this board got aggressive with it, and got a negative reaction from store and restaurant owners because their customers were getting tickets when they came in to have dinner or see a movie.

“It was having a negative effect on customers coming to our village, who would bring tickets into the merchants and say, ‘We’re not coming back,’” Murray added.

Police Commissioner Charles Gennario said the department “will continue to enforce safety violations” for parking in No Stopping, No Standing, No Parking, handicapped and fire zones, but otherwise “parking meter enforcement will cease after 6 p.m.”

Although the policy will not become official until the village Board of Trustees passes a resolution, Murray and Gennario both said that meter enforcement had ceased as of July 5. Murray said he expects a vote on the resolution to take place within the next four weeks.

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