Farmington cop marking time on parking patrol
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Sweat beaded on Shane Cote’s forehead as he briskly weaved around vehicles in the municipal parking lot. The day was a hot one.

Cote stopped at each vehicle to mark the passenger front tire with a thick stick of yellow chalk he carried. He held the chalk in his half-gloved right hand, as he bent to mark a tire across the top of the treads in the 1 o’clock position continuing the line down the sidewall. He’ll be able to tell if the vehicle moved when he gets back.

With limited parking space downtown, part of the Farmington police officer’s bike patrol duties is upholding the town’s parking ordinance.

Cote had parked his bike near the entrance to the lot and wrote down the time in his logbook before he started three-hour zone rounds.

It was 12:01 p.m.

When he finished marking the 38 vehicles in the lot he returned to his bike, took out his logbook and wrote down the time: 12:10. He opened the trunk on the back of the bike and took out a Ziploc baggie, now tinged yellow and put the chalk away. The trunk is where he carries tickets, warnings, cell phone, accident reports and other items. He put the kickstand up and started across the lot toward the District Attorney’s Office at the courthouse. He had more vehicles to mark in different zones.

As he walked his bike across Broadway, people smiled at him, some said “Hi,” others waved as they drove by.

The first year he marked tires, six years ago, he wrote more than 500 tickets. But that was one full year. Now he doesn’t write so many.

“Parking downtown is a huge issue,” Cote said.

Cote parked his bike in an alcove in the hallway of the DA’s Office. He took out the items he needed and headed back to the street.

He had two-hour parking zones to mark.

As he walked back toward the center of town on Main Street, chalking tires along the way, one man came out to his car.”That’s my car,” he said. “What did I do?”

Cote told him what he was doing before moving on. He chalks on average about 90 vehicles a day, he said, and on average writes about six tickets a day.

He was on Broadway when he suddenly stopped. He took out a ticket book and started writing. The vehicle was in a no parking zone.

It was 12:18. He stuck the $10 ticket under the windshield and continued down Broadway. Parking tickets in the 20-minute, two- and three-hour zones are $5 fines and double after 30 days. No parking areas are $10 fines and parking in a handicap zone is a $100 fine.

Cote walked and chalked until he came to the 20-minute zone near the bank. He took out his logbook and wrote the time: 12:21.

Business owners appreciate his keeping on top of parking, he said.

As he was on Main Street, one guy walked briskly by as Cote neared his vehicle. “I’m moving it,” the man yelled.

It was 12:31 when chalking was done before he headed back out for more rounds to check to see if vehicles moved.

At the end of this day’s parking rounds, which took about 41 minutes total, he wrote $50 worth of tickets: one 20-minute violation, one two-hour violation and two, three-hour tickets. In addition to the no parking zone violation earlier, he also wrote tickets for violation of no parking this side of road on Perkins Street and one for no parking here to corner on Pleasant Street.

dperry@sunjournal.com