New parking manager may be cracking down on those unpaid parking tickets

There's a new parking sheriff in town. Jon Rouse is the General Manager of City of Cedar Rapids Parking. Its parent company is Republic Parking System, based in Chattanooga, Tenn. This August, Rouse started a five year contract with the city to manage the parking services in Cedar Rapids.

There's a lot of work ahead. Drivers found out this week that five or more unpaid parking tickets puts them on a list to get towed starting Monday, November 30th.

Rouse said the city never made collecting the $7.50 tickets a big priority, and he's not sure how his company will rank the task, however he said they're already working on it. The city sent out certified letters to drivers with enough tickets to qualify. Rouse said the city has 200,000 outstanding tickets.

“I have never seen that many outstanding tickets in a city that I have worked in,” said Rouse.

Plenty of tickets were handed out Wednesday. Mike Metzger got tagged around lunch.

“Yeah I deserved the ticket. I should have parked somewhere else,” said Metzger.

Cedar Rapids Parking is also helping look at the future of back-in-angle parking, a move made after the flood to allow more access to buildings.

“I certainly think the back-in-angle parking is a unique concept. We haven't seen that in too many cities,” said Rouse.

While the city has the final say on this new parking style, Rouse says it can confuse drivers.