City news

State's attorney refuses to pay tickets

[MAY 11, 2005]  Downtown parking has been a major concern for business owners and those living and working in Lincoln for several years. City attorney Bill Bates said that downtown parking issues again came to his attention recently when he had a stack of unpaid parking tickets issued to Logan County State's Attorney Tim Huyett. All of the tickets were issued for parking in spaces around the courthouse. Huyett has refused to pay the tickets he received, saying that the city has no authority over those spaces. That is county property.

Bates brought the matter to the attention of the city's building and grounds committee, pointing out that there is at least one thing that they could do to improve parking. At one time, up until 1998, there was an annual agreement between the city and county giving the city authority over the courthouse parking area. The agreement seems to have been forgotten since then.

Chairman Derrick Crane said that the committee has met to discuss the downtown parking limitations. They have met with a county representative to discuss re-initiating the agreement. The Logan County property chairman John Stewart proposed a five-year agreement that will be easily renewed every five years.

In the previous agreements the county reserved four spaces: two for courthouse authorities and two for the sheriff's department. The county would now like six spaces reserved around the courthouse and several spaces in the Shay lot in back of the Arcade.

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