At Tuesday night’s Jefferson City Council meeting, the council discussed a recommendation from Police Chief Dave Morlan about stiffer penalties for illegally parking in town.

Currently, Chief Morlan says there have been higher than normal amount of calls about people with trailers or recreational vehicles parking on the driveways but blocking the sidewalks or parking along the curb and leaving their bigger vehicles out for an extended period of time.

Morlan states that they start the process by sending out a notice to the vehicle owner warning them of their parking violation, then if they don’t comply, they will issue tickets.

He describes how much the fine is if a ticket is issued according to city versus state code for parking violations.

“Section 70 of the municipal code sets parking violations at $10 if written on a city ticket or if we would write them on a uniform state citation it would be $10 plus $9 in court costs.  So it’s only $19 a fine if you violate any parking ordinance, except for the snow ordinance.”

Chief Morlan recommended to the Council that general parking violations be increased from $10 to $25, snow ordinance would go from $25 to $50 and larger vehicles that block the right-of-way or are left on the street longer than two hours, the fine would jump from $10 up to $75.

The Council is expected to take formal action on the issue at their next meeting in October.