Mischievous Meters May Lie

We recently parked on Center Street in downtown Fayetteville and noticed that the note inside the glass on the parking meter said it must be fed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

We thought somebody must have changed the law while we weren’t looking.

Previously, the notes inside Fayetteville meters said the parking regulations were enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays only. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting a ticket.

We called Sharon Crosson, the city’s utilities manager, who said the fibbing meter must have slipped through when the city purchased new meters four years ago, or perhaps that meter was installed to replace one that was damaged, and the note was put there by the manufacturer, Duncan Meters.

“I don’t think they all read that way,” she said. “It may just be some that got missed. I hope it’s not all of them.”

Thinking we might have been dyslexic that day, we went back to check. Of the 35 parking meters on Center Street in the block between College Avenue and East Avenue, seven of them had the notes containing the erroneous information.

We called Crosson again, and she said the notes would be replaced with accurate ones.

In the meantime, we wonder how much extra money the city made from people who were feeding those meters, and perhaps others downtown, when they didn’t have to.