New Philadelphia, Ohio (WJER) - City officials are cutting downtown shoppers some slack if their parking meter expires while their in town.

Council member Kelly Ricklic says council passed an ordinance giving drivers the ability to have their parking ticket waived by the city for certain situations that must be approved by the mayor’s office and the police chief. Ricklic says they don’t want to punish people for patronizing local businesses.

“You get tied up, you start talking, you meet somebody or just somebody you haven’t seen in a while… you get out there and you find you have a ticket. We believe that’s not an abuse of the parking lot,” he explains.

Ricklic says this will only apply for time restricted public parking spaces, and not private parking lots. 

“You get the ticket, take the ticket, bring it to the mayor. Let him take care of it with the police chief. This is not a ticket where they’re saying you’ve been there two hours. People that are abusing the parking spots and taking it from those business owners is what we’re trying to prevent, not the people that are using our businesses and just happen to get tied up because they start talking,” he says.

Ricklic says people who park expired for extended periods can still expect to pay their parking fine through the police department.  

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