Ah, the new parking meters, and the lack of signs about them, is causing much drama in the village of Nyack (and giving us lots of letters!).

What’s an out-of-towner to do when they get nailed for a ticket when they didn’t understand the change? Letter-writer John Cable of Valley Cottage gave his opinion in this letter to the editor. Before publication, he reached Nyack’s mayor who pledged to get the parking ticket squared away. Cable kindly notified us, and we verified with the mayor. The result was this note at the end of the letter:

Editor’s note: Nyack Mayor John Shields has notified the letter-writer that the ticket would be waived in this case because of inadequate signage there. The mayor also said new parking signs will be installed this week.

Then the fun began. Village trustee Richard Kavesh apparently took issue with the idea of the mayor “waiving” the ticket. An e-mail to the New York Conference of Mayors elicited a response from NYCOM that tickets can’t be “waived,” but should be handled by the issuing agency or the courts.

So, Shields says he won’t be taking any tickets anymore. Now, it’s up to the village justice court to decide—is it fair to ticket someone when they don’t see the meters or ANY SIGNS?

The signs are on the way, Shields says, and the village will put up temporary signage if the permanent ones aren’t ready. But what about now? (I actually had someone tell me that when she told a village employee that didn’t know about the parking change, she was told that it had been reported in The Journal News, so she should have been aware. Aw, c’mon. Not even I  believe that people should know just because we’ve published stories about it.)