TAMAQUA -- There's been some heated debate over a parking policy change in Tamaqua.
Essentially, "jammed meters" are no longer an excuse to get out of a parking ticket.
Tamaqua police brought up the idea of the parking meter change a few weeks ago but made it official at a council meeting Tuesday night.
The chief says he spent more than an hour debating with upset residents, trying to explain why the change was necessary.
A jammed meter used to get you out of paying a parking ticket, but now, even if the meter isn't working, you either have to park in another spot, or prepare to pay a fine.
"It shouldn't be that way," said Charles Long. "If there is something wrong with the meter, you are not going to leave the parking space."
Tamaqua police agreed for years, but recently they realized the borough was dealing with more and more meter jams.
It seems some people caught on to the idea that they could get out of paying for parking, or paying for a ticket if the meter was jammed or if they intentionally jammed it.
"Some people ruin it for other people and other people pay the price."
The borough says about 40 percent of its meter jammings are intentional, from people putting things like a broken plastic dime to breaking off a twig and putting that into the meters.
"They put twigs in there," said Bud Comisac, Tamaqua meter reader. "Gum, anything, I had glass in them."
Comisac reads and fixes the parking meters. He's had to create special tools to remove all the stuff jammed into the borough's parking meters.
The most popular thing jammed in is coins, either wrapped in paper or intentionally bent.
Cosimac is puzzled why people have gone to the lengths they have to avoid paying a parking ticket.
The fine is $10.
That's a lot cheaper than what it costs him to fix all the jammed meters.
Tamaqua police said they did not want to make the change in the parking policy, but repairs got too costly for the borough.
They hope this will now curb the problem with jammed meters.