Editor:

So, I am about to pay my Old Town employment penalty. What? You didn't know there is a fee for working in Old Town? Well, there is. This is my third parking ticket. It's very discouraging to work every day, knowing I could be penalized for doing so. The fee is $38, not an insignificant amount of my daily income, considering I work at a nonprofit. (Full disclosure: I was able to successfully dispute one of those tickets, as there was construction and I had moved my car, just not very far.)

But that's the thing. All of us working in Old Town have to stop working and play musical cars every two hours. This is extremely disruptive, and if you don't have time to move your car, well, you could be fined. There is currently no parking pass for workers in Old Town available for purchase from the city, or I believe all of us would be clamoring for one. Instead, we just have to waste time and money playing this silly parking game.

And what does this accomplish? Moving your car to another space doesn't free up any parking. When I went to the police department to discuss it, I was told by the woman at the front desk that I should use my breaks to move my car. So, the two federally mandated 10-minute breaks and one 30-minute lunch should be used for moving one's car, not for actually taking a short rest from work or eating a meal. That's the solution from a representative of the Eureka PD. We need a better one.

Dana Taggart, Eureka