Board Approves Amnesty on Overdue Parking Tickets

Town Hall Press Release By A.J. Carter

The Huntington Town Board, at its March 5 meeting, voted to declare a one-month amnesty on overdue traffic summonses, allowing people to settle their accounts by paying 60 percent of the value of their fines and penalties.

The amnesty, which will be in effect from April 1 to April 30, targets the approximately $625,000 in outstanding fines and penalties motorists incurred dating back to January 1, 2005 and includes all tickets for which persons were to have replied to the Town’s Parking Violations Bureau.

“This program will bring revenue to the Town while affording vehicle owners the opportunity to lift an obligation that has been weighing on them, in some cases for up to eight years,” said Supervisor Frank P. Petrone, who sponsored the Town Board resolution establishing the amnesty program. “I hope the financial incentive of a 40 percent reduction in the amount they owe will spur them to help clear up their books and ours.”

 The resolution also approved the hiring of Fundamental Business Service Inc. to administer the program for the Town, including mailing notices to persons with outstanding tickets informing them of the one-month amnesty window. The company, which is based in Hempstead, has successfully administered amnesty programs in Babylon,  Brookhaven and Islip.

On May 1, after the one-month amnesty ends, persons who did not take advantage of the amnesty will owe the full amount in fines and penalties and risk other enforcement measures including the possibility of their car being “booted” or a lien being filed for the arrears.

In other action, the Town Board:

— authorized the Town to participate as one of 30 municipal partners in the “New York Solar Smart” application for a federal Solar Rooftop Challenge Grant being  submitted by the City University of New York.

— authorized the Supervisor to enter into a contract with North Star Concrete Construction Corp. for renovations to the American Legion Hall on Woodside Avenue in Northport. The Town, the Village of Northport and American Legion Post 694 are pooling separate federal grants to fund the rehabilitation and modernization of the building. The cost of the project is $997,987.

— Accepted donations of park benches at two Town facilities, one in memory of Dennis Michael Edwards at the Halesite Marina Park and the other in memory of Patricia Dowling at Crab Meadow Beach. In each case, the donations come from their families.