By Angela Marshall
First you have to find an open space. You pull into the lot across from the Post Office on Merrick Road nothing. People are double parked on Park Avenue, as usual. Next, you check out the lot behind Rite Aid. Victory. An SUV packed with kids is pulling out. You grab the spot and throw a sympathetic look at the driver behind you who just missed out.
But your troubles aren't over. Once you put your four quarters in the new-fangled parking kiosks after going back to the car because you forgot to look at the number painted on the ground you've got just two hours to complete your errands or risk a ticket.
It's an old story with a new twist and it is the talk of the town. Speak to old timers and they'll regale you with tales of when you used to be able to park in Rockville Centre for free. Then it was 25 cents an hour. Now it's up to 50 cents. The latest price increase, after nine years without a change, came last month.
The new parking-fee machines, called kiosks, have, over the last few years, been slowly replacing the meters formerly found in front of individual spaces in village lots. Under this system, each space is assigned a number the driver must enter in a machine located near one of the lot's entrances. Then they drop in their coins and press the green button for a receipt.
New prices, new machines and a two- hour limit for daytime shopping for some villagers, out-of-town shoppers and business owners, it's just too much. The two- hour time limit isn't new, but it remains one of the top gripes about village parking.
Half the time I don't think they welcome people here, said a woman from Garden City, who came to the village last Friday to see her doctor. She's not alone in that opinion and some business owners think the parking situation drives away customers.
I just feel that fees are very high, said Steve Ruchman of Ruchman Associates. He thinks customers of Rockville Centre's retail shops will eventually decide shopping centers where the parking is free and there's usually plenty of it are much less hassle.
Ruchman also worries about a potential decline in people coming to the village to see a doctor, lawyer or other business professional. Two hours, he says, is just not enough time to get things done and he feels patrons might be turned off if they have to constantly interrupt their appointments to go feed the meter.
But feeding the meter, especially by employees, is one of the main reasons for the higher fees and two-hour time limit, according to village officials.
We feel [business owners] would be much worse off without meters, said Village Trustee Jack Matthews. Without meters, we'd have chaos.
Some employees at village businesses have long flaunted the laws requiring them to park in employee lots instead of shopper parking. Now, a worker on an eight-hour shift has to pay $4 a day to continue breaking the law.
It's excessive. I'm going to be feeding the meter all day. I work in town and what's it going to cost me, $5 or $6? said an angry worker who wouldn't give her name.
The village board hopes some meter feeders will take the hike literally and walk the few blocks to employee parking rather than pay the higher fee.
Keith Linsalata, of the Art Flower and Gift Shoppe on North Village Avenue, is concerned that some employees and business owners may be receiving fewer tickets than others for meter feeding. He said there are four cars that park on his block regularly that never get tickets. Linsalata said he was given a ticket one day just putting in money for his second hour. Some of the meters only take enough money for one hour at a time, even though two hours are allowed.
Ruchman also said he has seen cars parked for long periods of time in front of certain businesses. Somehow they don't get tickets.
Deputy Mayor Wayne Lipton said the high number of broken meters in the village may have prevented the tickets from being handed out evenly in the past. I don't think there was an intent to discriminate, he said. Lipton also said this is the first time he is hearing this and urged residents and business owners with concerns to bring them to the village board.
Some of the board's other reasons for raising the fees are parking lot maintenance and paying to switch the remaining mechanical meters over to electronic. The mechanical meters were often broken, causing a backlog at the village court with people protesting tickets.
Lisa McDaniels of Rockville Centre was unimpressed with the reasons for the parking-fee increase. She looked around the municipal lot across from the Post Office and said it looks the same as it did three years ago. She said village officials always have one excuse or another for raising fees.
Not all business owners are concerned about the new rates. Pat Huber, owner of Better Home Health Care, agreed with the village trustees that the fees are necessary to keep people from monopolizing the meters. She pointed out that many of the village's retail establishments have been open for years, surviving past fee hikes and parking shortages. And she said, Rockville Centre parking is still cheaper than Queens and Manhattan.
