Oct 22, 2007

Port Jefferson merchants knock parking metersBy Katie SerigneseNewsday.com

Dozens of Port Jefferson merchants are hopping mad about parking meters installed in recent months in the village, saying the 50-cent hourly fee is driving away customers and hurting their bottom line.

Stacey DiFazio, owner of The Pink Grasshopper clothing store on East Main Street, blames the meters for a drop in sales at her store of $10,000 in July and $7,000 in August.

“I had a thriving business,” DiFazio told the village board of trustees at a meeting to discuss the parking meters and their impact. She added that the meters by her store also don’t work properly, saying, “Your goods don’t work.”

When Mayor Brian Harty said the meters certainly weren’t intended to hurt businesses, derisory chuckles burbled from the audience of 100 people attending Thursday night’s meeting in the village center.

The meters, installed in June, charge 50 cents an hour, which can be paid in half-hour increments. Parking tokens, credit cards and all coins except pennies are accepted. Village residents, who are entitled to a two-year parking pass, are exempt from having to feed the meters; nonresident shop owners and employees are not.

Fay Mutch, an employee at Earring Tabu, said she’s already received five tickets – at $30 each – when her paid time on meters ran out as she was working.

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