The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Check your glove compartment. The City of Flin Flon is cracking down on the recipients of some 7,600 outstanding parking tickets. Dating as far back as 1990, the fines represent $143,000 in unrealized City revenue, an amount that surprised Bylaw Enforcement Officer Darren Romo. "It's a lot of money, and this is money that's owed to the taxpayers," said Romo. "This is revenue that the City could be using for services; otherwise, we have to take it from taxpayer money." Romo has been busy sending letters to drivers who owe fines and hopes to have contacted all of them by the end of April. The recipients will be informed that failure to pay will result in a lean being placed against their vehicle. If they still do not pay, their vehicle would be seized and auctioned off to cover the cost. "Obviously we don't want to go down the road where we have to seize people's vehicles," said Romo, "but we feel that it's our responsibility to the taxpayers that we should be going after these debts." The outstanding fines were issued between 1990 and 2002 for traffic violations such as parking with an expired meter and in no-parking areas. Many people owe as little as $20, but some owe much more. One unlucky person has $3,500 in outstanding tickets. Romo said it's likely many of the people simply forgot about their fines. That's been the case with several individuals who have already received one of Romo's letters. "A lot of people who have gotten the letters were surprised," said the bylaw enforcement officer. "They've been coming in and paying. We've had good cooperation on it so far." A challenge Romo faces is tracking down the roughly 10 per cent of fine recipients who have since left the community. He said one option to find those individuals would be to utilize a collection agency or contact family members.
