Just running into the airport to give grandma one last hug? Don’t leave the car in front of the terminal at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, or you may come back to find a parking ticket.
The first reading of an ordinance that will allow airport personnel to write those tickets will be on the consent agenda this morning for the 10 a.m. meeting of the Board of La Plata County Commissioners in the meeting room at the La Plata County Courthouse. The ticketing would tentatively go into effect May 24.
Kip Turner, the airport director, briefed the commissioners about the problem of people leaving their cars in front of the terminal in December and again Wednesday. A county ordinance currently allows deputies from the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office to issue parking citations, but since no deputies are stationed at the airport, the ordinance has no teeth.
After several meetings, a protocol has been developed to handle the citations:
Airport staff will use the city’s new hand-held units and software to issue the tickets.
The city will track the tickets until the payment period has expired.
The city will pay the county treasurer any fees it collects, and the county will then issue a check to the airport.
Once the payment period has expired, unpaid tickets will go to County Court for adjudication. The individual who was ticketed will have the right to contest it in court. Additional fees and court costs will apply.
The court will issue any monies from fees it collects to the county treasurer, who will then issue a check to the airport.
Drivers will have to pay any court judgments before they can renew their drivers’ licenses.
Ticket fees for airport citations will be the same as those issued in downtown Durango for accounting ease – $15 at issue, doubled to $30 at seven days and doubled again to $60 at 30 days.
A number of people have been involved in developing the protocol for the tickets, including Turner; Todd Weaver, a member of the county attorney’s office; Roy Peterson, the city of Durango’s General Services director, who oversees the city’s parking citations; 6th Judicial District Court Administrator Eric Hogue; court staff Debi Craig and Kandi McCoy; and Assistant County Manager Joanne Spina.
The ordinance will need to be reviewed, read and published several times before it goes into effect. First publication is scheduled for Thursday, a review of the ordinance with the Airport Commission is scheduled for April 17, and it will return to the commissioners on April 22.
abutler@durangoherald.com
If you go
La Plata County commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. today in the meeting room of the La Plata County Courthouse.
