Call it the muni-meter mess.
With discarded parking receipts from the machines creating a new littering problem for local merchants, the Throggs Neck Merchants Association and Community Board 10 are teaming up to help give merchants a break from getting slapped with littering fines for messes not of their own making.
Muni-meters are expected to be installed in all commercial corridors in the borough by Memorial Day.
Outside the CB 10 office at 3165 E. Tremont Avenue, the litter is clearly visible on a daily basis, said district manager Kenneth Kearns.
The board has teamed up with the local Throggs Neck Merchants Association to create a flyer to be displayed in member stores, urging shoppers on the E. Tremont Avenue strip to properly dispose of their expired metered chits.
“Muni-meter tickets can be found all over the street,” Kearns said.
“It is a problem, and all people have to do is throw their muni-meter receipts into a waste basket,” said TNMA president Steve Kaufman, “We hope that they will pass a law where people can use the remaining time on their tickets and get full value for the time they pay for.”
This may make them less prone to throw the parking receipts on the ground, Kaufman said.
Councilman Jimmy Vacca is currently sponsoring legislation that he said is being fast-tracked through the city council to allow motorists who purchase their tickets at one pay station to reuse them in a different area until their time expires.
“Muni-meters are now coming to Pelham Bay, one of the last communities in the borough that will receive them,” Vacca said. “But in other communities we are already seeing a new problem with litter with muni-meter receipts in the street.
“People have to realize that merchants can be ticketed for those receipts if they are dropped into the street.”
