Boro to monitor speeds, take
payments by
credit card
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer
SPOTSWOOD — Got a traffic ticket? At least now you can pay the fine with a credit card.
At a Borough Council meeting Aug. 4, Mayor Barry Zagnit announced that the borough’s municipal court will now accept credit card payments for fines, something that many other towns are also allowing. The move is aimed to make it easier for people to pay off fines and lessen paperwork for the town.
In related news, Zagnit announced that the police have acquired a new digital radar that will be placed on borough roads to alert drivers of their speeds. He said the borough gets numerous complaints about speeding and hopes the radar will deter the problem.
Zagnit said the radar, which is used by many communities, will be towed by police cars to areas that Police Chief Karl Martin feels need attention. The department may locate the radar on a street for a couple of days and, after having it removed, station a police car there to issue summonses.
"The police and me get a lot of speeding complaints," Zagnit said. "The chief refers them to the shift supervisor, and that sergeant will schedule a patrol car as it’s available to run [normal] radar."
Having the radar sign will help cut down on speeding as the department will not have to station an officer wherever it wants to track speeders.
"With this, we’ll look at streets with persistent speeding problems," he said, adding that the digital radar sign will be used "randomly and periodically."
Zagnit said that when he sees the radar signs, he slows down automatically, regardless of whether he is speeding.
"We think this is a piece of equipment that will be very useful in lowering the amount of speeders," he said.
The sign cost the borough about $7,200, he said.
As for the credit cards, Zagnit said it was requested by the municipal court judge that credit cards be allowed. He said the borough has a number of violators who pay fines on a time payment basis, and using credit cards will allow them to do so without burdening the town. Credit card companies typically require that a percentage of each monthly bill be paid within four weeks. That gives users some extra time to come up with the money for the rest of the bill, and effectively works out as a time payment, he said. The borough, however, would get all its money immediately from the credit card company.
He said time payments have burdened the town.
"Obviously, that becomes a problem because court personnel need to keep records, and it drags out the situation," he said. "It’s time consuming and also makes for frequent handling of money. Plus, the town doesn’t get the money right away."
He said many towns also accept credit cards for water and sewer payments.
Spotswood officials will monitor the use of credit cards for court fines and decide whether to allow credit cards for water and sewer payments.
"We have to see if this makes sense for us, and if its costs warrant the benefit we reap," he said.