City's new parking authority has collected $230,000 in unpaid tickets

Scofflaws are starting to pay up in Cedar Rapids. The city's new parking authority said it has collected $230,000 of the outstanding $600,000 in unpaid parking tickets.

In August, 2009, Republic Parking won a contract to oversee the city's parking situation in downtown. One of their main objectives was to make on-street parking easier to use and more profitable for both the city and downtown businesses.

“The more those on-street parking spaces rotate and overturn, the more people that can park close and do business in Cedar Rapids,” said Jon Rouse, General Manager for Republic Parking, City of Cedar Rapids.

Rouse figures there are still 20,000 unpaid parking tickets the city needs to collect revenue on. He couldn't put a price tag on those tickets because they differ in cost depending if they're overdue.

Rouse also helped initiate a new tool to help collect tickets. If any one car has five or more unpaid tickets, it is eligible to be towed on the next ticket.

“We don't like to tow people, that puts undue stress on the consumer,” said Rouse. But, he said it appears to work to get some people to pay. He said they tow between five and ten cars a month.

Rouse said they are getting ready to receive bids to install credit card machines to take money at parking spots instead of coin machines. He said they plan to start installing them in the parking ramps in the next few months, and they could hit the streets by next spring.