Parking tickets written before the borough had its parking meters certified through the state Bureau of Weights and Measures have been withdrawn.
The borough has withdrawn roughly 75 parking meter citations, with the exception of those who already pleaded guilty or were found guilty and the 30-day appeal window has lapsed, according to District Judge Michael Gerheim.
Gerheim said the citations withdrawn were state citations, which could include more than a single ticket.
State inspectors started inspecting the borough's 260 meters on March 29, when resident Patricia Ameno was contesting the more than 300 tickets she received for parking in a metered slot near her apartment on Market Street. Ameno has not said what she plans to do about dozens of tickets she was issued prior to that.
A majority of the 75 tickets withdrawn by the borough were issued to Ameno, according to Gerheim.
Police Chief Keith Knepshield said inspectors should finish repairing and certifying the 90 meters -- about 35 percent of them -- that failed inspection today.
"Those failed not only because some were not giving enough time, some failed because they were giving too much time," Knepshield said. "If they give over nine minutes (for an hour's parking), they fail anyway.
"About 15 to 20 were giving too much time."
Ameno was scheduled to have a hearing on Thursday over the tickets, which she argued were illegal because the meters hadn't been certified within three years, as required by state law.
Borough Solicitor James Favero asked the magistrate on April 15 to withdraw Ameno's tickets and any other citations pending against anyone before the meters were certified.
Ameno said she's pleased the borough had the meters certified.
"It gets down to this," Ameno said. "According to the state (Bureau) of Weights and Measures and common sense application, the issuance of the tickets was illegal and the collection of money was illegal. Therefore, it's ill-gotten gain."
The Bureau of Weights and Measures checks things measured by clocks or scales, such as gas pumps, grocery store scales, truck scales and so on. The bureau has 18 inspectors covering 41 counties, according Ken Deitzler, bureau chief.
Up until 1996, counties had their own weights and measures departments, but then a state law gave counties the chance to let the state take over, which does inspections for free, according to Deitzler.
Allegheny and Westmoreland counties retained their departments, but only Allegheny checks parking meters. Armstrong and Butler counties don't have their own department of weights and measures.
