May 12, 2014 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Borough council Monday adopted revisions to the borough’s parking ordinance that increase the fines for parking violations and voted to reinstate this summer’s youth playground program.

Council approved increases in fines for parking in the business district after a public hearing drew no comments from those in attendance.

The fines remained unchanged since 1986 and some council members felt existing fines were insufficient to change the behavior particularly of repeat violators.

The fine for violating the two-hour parking limit in the unmetered area of the business district will increase from $5 to $20.

Motorists who violate the limit and are ticketed will be ticketed again every two hours if the vehicle is not moved. No more than three tickets will be issued during any day to a vehicle in the same parking space.

The current $5 fines for violations, including parking too far from the curb, failing to park within the marked space and parking on the sidewalk or curb, will increase to $10.

The borough will eliminate the discount for violations paid on the same day. Parking in a business loading zone will increase from $5 to $20.

The revised ordinance also requires a ticket be paid within five days or the fine doubles and is turned over to the district judge for prosecution.

The ordinance will take effect in 30 days. It does not address meter violations; meter violations fines remain unchanged.

Council also adopted a revision to the littering ordinance, increasing the fine from $5 to $25 and adding cigarette butts to the list of items defined as litter.

In other business, several residents attended the meeting apparently to discuss council’s decision to cancel the summer playground program.

Mayor Duncan Berryman, however, told council the borough received $6,200 in donations to operate the program this year and was expecting one more donation that should give it enough money to fund the program.

Council canceled the six-week program after being told few children were participating in it and apparently believing the program was funded solely by the borough.

For at least the last two years, the program was funded through donations. Berryman also said 30 children signed up for the program last year.

Councilman Mark Fischer said council was not given enough information about the program.

He said it should have been provided with a daily count of how many children attended the program in the past. He also said the program was presented to council as an item to be funded by the borough.

Council asked solicitor Linda Chambers to contact state regulators to determine when the borough should be notified regarding a water outage.

The issue was raised after the borough didn’t receive notification from Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority for an outage one day last month.

Fischer said the outage could affect firefighting abilities and increase chances of contamination and a better protocol should be required.