Complaints continue to come in about parking in downtown Fort Frances.
But the town’s by-law enforcement office has been hampered by the pandemic.
By-law enforcement officer Patrick Briere says a change in operations for the provincial offences office and how they were processing tickets led the town to place a hold on issuing parking tickets.
“We kind of put it on the back burner and only dealt with parking enforcement during that time, complaint-driven only. We tried to use education as our first and foremost process with an issue that was ongoing,” says Briere.
Briere says the town’s office is also working shorthanded.
“I haven’t been in the downtown core much. I’ve been monitoring it and then going down when complaints are received. The focus has been on some of the other areas of town right now.”
Briere says that includes complaints about people parking in the fire lanes at places like Walmart, Safeway, Canadian and the high school. He’s also been addressing complaints about people parking illegally in handicap spaces.
“We are issuing as we go along we have issues and going through the process once it’s convicted in the POA office it’s just sitting in the bore world again.”
Briere adds any late fees or plate denials on unpaid tickets can’t be imposed until December 1.
