Debt Collectors Coming for City Parking Scofflaws

Vermont is taking time from being quaint and maple syrup to put the smackdown on parking scoflaws.

Rutland, Vermont, is out close to $180,000 in unpaid parking fees — money it would really like in its coffers, thankyouverymuch.

Treasurer Al Wilkinson and his staff are working to get caught up. But recently, Wilkinson asked members of the city’s Board of Finance — which is made up of the treasurer, Mayor John Cassarino and Board of Aldermen President David Allaire — for permission to outsource the collection of hundreds of unpaid tickets to a private firm.

"We’ve been trying to get caught up on the tickets, but there are a large number of outstanding tickets that go way back and we don’t have addresses for them anymore," Wilkinson told the Rutland Herald. "The collection letters we’ve sent out were returned by the post office. Their new addresses aren’t in our systems and the police don’t have the manpower or the time to track all these people down."

The board approved his request.