LEWES, Del. Lewes parking enforcement officers are gearing up for the beginning of meter season. Starting this Sunday, it's back to paying for parking.
Meter season starts May 1st and runs until September 30th at the beaches and October 14th downtown.
Parking in Lewes is increasing by 50 cents for the first time in several years. It'll cost $1.50/hour downtown, and $2.50/ hour at the beach lots.
"I think it's much too much, especially in today's economy. I think it's not fair to the people who live here," said Eileen Beveridge.
"I don't think it's going to make any difference especially if people are on vacation. They're going to pay whatever they have to pay in order to go where they want to go," said Cheryl Graves.
If you happen to get fined there is a new additional way to pay.
"We established a QR code on the back of the citation that will take them directly to our citation payment portal," said Dennis Crawford, who manages the Lewes parking enforcement division.
The Roosevelt Inlet parking lot is closed Wednesday through Friday while crews work on delineating parking spaces, creating two paved handicap spaces, and a bicycle rack. Parking will still be free.
"It was very dangerous, people park in there randomly, take up three or four spaces, just don't pay any attention and sort of getting the full number of vehicles we could get in the lot, we lose a lot of space based on the way people we're parking," said Crawford.
Remember, you can only park head-in throughout Lewes.
"A lot of our violations that are not dealing with people not paying have to deal with backing into a spot or not parking within the lines. We will issue citations for people who back into a spot in any one of the parking lots in the city," said Crawford.
You could find a ticket on your windshield if you decide to park against the flow of traffic or over the white line. Crawford also reminds people to enter a complete license plate number. All letters and all numbers including the "PC" on SUV license plates.
WRDE reached out to the city to find out why the price increase was needed, but we haven't heard back yet. Crawford suspects it was a revenue flow decision.