Parking tickets irk Greensburg workers during pandemic

Coronavirus has changed almost everything, but some people who work in Greensburg say they’re still facing one all-too-familiar scenario: parking tickets.

“I think it’s ridiculous that we’re being ticketed during a pandemic,” said Tracy Scott, who works at the Welcome Home shelter on South Maple Avenue.

She’s been given several tickets over the last month.

The city has relaxed parking enforcement during the coronavirus shutdown. Cars are not ticketed unless they stay in the same space longer than an hour.

This compromise ensures that people who come downtown to shop and run errands can do so for free, while those who work downtown still will have to lease a permanent space for $60 a month.

“You have the people downtown who are still working, and they’ll park there for free all day and tie up all the parking,” said Greensburg Police Chief Chad Zucco. “It’s the same issue that it always is.”

However, with the city’s streets and parking lots nearly empty due to widespread shutdowns, some of those who still work downtown say the city should stop issuing tickets entirely until the pandemic is over.

Esther Rahl owns Vaccare’s Pharmacy, one of the few Main Street businesses still open. She doesn’t have to worry about parking tickets — she leases a space from the city. But she’s heard many complaints from customers about the city continuing to ticket despite a plethora of available parking.

“How much money can they be making?” she asked. “You see the lot, it’s empty. People are on edge, and I don’t think it’s fair.”

Hundreds of people usually come downtown to work at the Westmoreland County Courthouse, but nearly 500 county employees have been furloughed as a result of the pandemic. There are fewer than 200 people still working at the courthouse.

Scott doesn’t lease a space, so regularly filling the meter is a concern for her whether or not there’s a pandemic. But she said “essential” workers who risk exposing themselves to the virus deserve a break.

“I think it’s unconscionable to ticket those of us in the human service industry at this time,” she said.

In addition to herself and her coworkers, Scott said she has homeless clients who were ticketed while they were receiving assessments and other services at the shelter.

“There has to be a give and take in this situation,” she said.

Local communities have taken varied approach to parking tickets during the shutdown.

Pittsburgh has stopped parking meter enforcement altogether. So has Ligonier Borough.

In other communities, like Irwin, parking enforcement is pretty much business as usual.

“We’re maybe a little bit relaxed in regards to reinforcement, but the parking meters are being enforced,” said Lt. Michael Thomas of the Irwin Police Department.

In addition to preventing any current parking problems, keeping up enforcement will help keep things seamless when they go back to normal, he said.

“I believe in trying to keep things as close to normal as possible.”

In Greensburg, the debate over free parking is a familiar one, with or without coronavirus. While the city’s policies draw plenty of complaints, they also ensure that there are plenty of open spaces that can be used by shoppers — not 40-hour-a-week employees, said city Administrator Kelsye Milliron.

“Our main reasoning with continuing to enforce parking is to deter employees from places such as the courthouse from parking in front of businesses that are still able to be open all day long,” she said via email.

The city has experimented with free parking during the Christmas shopping season, but stopped the initiative after business owners complained that all the spots were taken by employees instead of patrons, Milliron said.

Rahl thinks now’s the time to reevaluate that policy.

“It makes the city look so bad. It’s embarrassing,” she said.