For quick trips, some ignore parking rules

Some are ticketed, some are confused by the new Main Street markings.

By: Audrey Levine
   While Main Street business owners fight to get 36 curbside parking spaces eliminated by the county restored, some of their customers are taking matters into their own hands and parking there anyway.
   The spaces were eliminated by Somerset County — which owns Main Street, also called Route 533 — after last year’s repaving, noting the spots violated a state law which says that parking spaces aren’t allowed across from side streets.
   Several business owners said they have seen the occasional customer parking in one of the striped no-parking spots, mostly before spending only a few minutes in a nearby store.
   In addition, they said, some disabled customers have parked there as well to avoid a long walk from a parking lot or space down the street.
   But one business owner said he had heard that a few people were issued summonses for parking at an intersection when police found them parked in the newly striped spaces near the European Deli and the Stop N Go, both on South Main Street. He said the people were forced to pay $54 tickets.
   Another business owner said that customers have been questioning where the former parking spaces are, but that there doesn’t seem to be outright disregard of the parking ban.
   Engineers from the Department of Transportation investigated Main Street in August to determine if any of the parking spaces could be reinstated, but business owners said they have not heard any updates as of yet. According to Mayor Angelo Corradino after the DOT’s visit, it was determined by engineers that the county had correctly striped illegal spaces.
   Mayor Corradino has said that the best solution right now is for business owners to contact local state legislators — including Assemblymen Chris Bateman, R-Branchburg, and Pete Biondi, R-Hillsborough, — to encourage them to introduce legislation and maybe get a reprieve for business owners in Manville.
   "I’m getting in touch with the deputy secretaries (of state) to hopefully set up a meeting and discuss what the DOT representatives and our representatives found," Mayor Corradino said Wednesday. "There is no short-term solution, but hopefully we can get things resolved in a timely fashion and help the businesses for the holiday season."