Growing issues of Tennessee Tech Students illegally parking on public streets have led the Cookeville Police Department to increase parking enforcement around campus.
Cookeville City Manager James Mills said the city has received several complaints from residents, businesses, and motorists about students parking illegally. Students seem to be focused on 8th, 9th, and 10th Streets and just north of the downtown area. Mills said the police department will be writing tickets and towing vehicles.
“We are hoping by increasing enforcement that the violators will learn from their errors and start parking legally,” Mills said. “But we still are having some issues.”
Mills said since mid-October, over 200 tickets have been written and eight vehicles have been towed. Mills said the city has had discussions with the university about the issues.
Mills said the city has learned that students park on the public streets for convenience. Mills said he believes the university acknowledges it needs more parking.
“They do have a large parking area on the Western part of the campus off of 9th Street, that I believe they provide a shuttle service for, but you know, I guess some students think that’s inconvenient,” Mills said. “Of course, I think again, the university recognizes that they could do a better job of providing parking, and I think they have long-range plans to do so.”
Mills said first-time offenders will receive a $10 ticket. Mills said every ticket after the first ticket is $50. Mills said the city will continue to enhance enforcement until the parking issue is resolved.
Mills said he does not see the enhancement of enforcing parking as taking away resources from the city’s police department.
“I mean, that’s part of their job is to enforce parking,” Mills said. “This has been an enhancement of that, so yeah, it is taking a bit more time, but it is an appropriate use of their time to enforce parking, especially in some of the instances we have had, several of the tickets have been for some pretty serious violations. When you park in front of a fire hydrant, when you park too close to an intersection, when you block somebody’s driveway, when you park in no parking zones, those can create hazards for not only motorists but also pedestrians, and as you know, a lot of students walk from their apartments and wherever they live to the campus and it is important that we make it as safe as we can.”
