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In an effort to keep fines imposed by the justice court for traffic violations from languishing, the village board unanimously passed a local law, setting the minimum fine schedule for traffic infractions enforceable by the village and additional fines for those who fail to answer a summons for traffic infractions. According to Mayor Jack M. Martins, the village had no mechanism in place to increase fines as time passes. With the passing of the local law, there is now a system in place whereby fines are increased for those summonses that were not answered either by defendants not paying the fine or not answering the appearance at justice court. The laws sets the following stipulations: * The amount of the fine shall be increased by 100 percent after 30 days from the date of the first court appearance. * The amount of the fine will be increased by another 50 percent after 90 days from the date of the first court appearance. * The amount of the fine will be increased by another 50 percent after 180 days from the date of the first court appearance. * The amount of the fine will be increased by another 50 percent after 540 days from the date of the first court appearance. In addition, after 540 days from the first court appearance, all outstanding fines will be reduced to a judgement and filed with the appropriate county clerk. Once outstanding fines go to judgement, they will be revealed during a credit check for such applications as for credit cards and mortgages. "We have to have a means to collect the money due us," Mayor Martins said. The village will now do its collections in-house instead of using an outside firm to try to recapture fines that were due. The village board also voted to change some of its traffic violation fines. One that came up recently is the snow ordinance by which residents are required to get their cars off the streets if there are two or more inches of snow on the ground. The minimum fine for such an infraction was $50. However, with the new local law, the minimum fine is $100 for the first infraction, $250 for the second infraction within 18 months and $500 for the third infraction within 18 months. Some of the other minimum fines that were changed included a violation for alternate side parking which increased from $25 to $40; limited, restricted and prohibited parking increased from $20 to $40; commercial vehicle parking overnight in residential areas increased from $50 to $100; out of a space in a village parking field increased from $15 to $40; parking without a permit in Parking Field #6 increased from $25 to $50; prohibited trucking increased from $25 to $100; parking on a sidewalk increased from $25 to $35; the fine for being double parked increased from $25 to $35 and the fine for parking in a marked crosswalk increased from $25 to $35. Here is the revised schedule of minimum fines for traffic infractions with the understanding that the village justice court judge has the discretion to increase fines based on multiple offenses except with regard to the snow ordinance, which is already set.
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