Waynesburg to continue chalking tires

A federal court ruling in Michigan last week, deeming the marking of tires for parking enforcement unconstitutional, won’t affect Waynesburg, according to the borough manager.
The borough uses chalk to mark the tires of vehicles parked on streets with a two-hour free parking limit. If the chalk is still on the tire after two hours, a $20 ticket is written for that driver.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that marking the tires is unconstitutional, calling it a warrantless search of property, according to the Associated Press. The ruling affects Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Since Pennsylvania isn’t one of the affected states, Waynesburg is still using chalk. In 2018, parking tickets brought in $33,579.74 in revenue for the borough, which did away with parking meters years ago.
“If this carries over into our area or becomes a nationwide issue and we’re not allowed to chalk tires, we’ll have to devise some other means of parking enforcement,” said borough manager Mike Simms. “It would be very expensive to put meters back in.”
The maintenance for meters would also cost the borough, as would installing parking kiosks or pay stations, as seen in larger cities like Pittsburgh. For now, he said, they will keep chalking tires.