Parking Meters Cause Legal Flurry After Two Year Quiet

Cambridge parking meters are illegal according to Edgar F. Copell, traffic engineer in the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, as quoted in the Boston Traveler last night.

Contacted last night, however, Copell dented this statement. He was backed up by Cambridge Police Chief John R. King, who said "We will continue to enforce parking meter regulations in Cambridge until we get orders to the contrary from the City law department."

Since March 24, 1947, when the first meter went into operation, more than 25,000 tickets have been issued for overtime parking. Chief King says he expects no law suits from owners of ticketed cars.

Copell admitted in an interview last night that there is a legal difficulty involved but said that he has been "trying to straighten it out with the city authorities quietly." He attributed the Traveler story to a clerk in his office.

The newspaper account that two attorneys in Central Square have been ignoring their parking tickets and have challenged the police to prosecute them was also denned by King.

According to Richard A. Dow, President of the Businessmen's Association, the 400 meters have eliminated all-day parking as well as supplying $110,000 for the city treasury.

The State law which concerns this problem was written in 1928 and amended in 1947 to read in part: "No rule, regulation, order, ordinance, or by-law of a city or town hereafter made or promulgated relative to or in connection with . . . signs, lights, markings, signal systems or similar devices or parking meters on any was within its control, shall take effect until approved in writing by the Department of Public Works or be effective after said approval is revoked." The 1947 amendment merely placed "parking meters" after "similar devices."

Cambridge passed its meter ordinance before this amendment went into effect and later submitted its plans to the Department, which sent the plans back to the City Council for changes. "They were never resubmitted.