The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-01-11
ABOUT PARKING METERS

Inc CltlZen DelleveS Mayor wizard
M. Albury should make a careful investi-
cation of certain reported facts before he
enters into contract with the Trafico Park
ing Meter company of Miami for the in
stallation of between 200 and 800 parking
meters on Key, West streets--as authorized
at special meeting Tuesday night of the
city council. ,, Fl ss IL
In the first place, the Miami news
papers of Tuesday, January 10, a few
hours before the council met, printed
stories to the effect that federal court suits
to put Henry o. and Martin L. Shaw,
brothers, and their Trafico Parking Meter
company "out of the parking meter bust
ness for five years and to collect $4,000
alleged damages from Henry o. Shaw"
have been filed by NJ H. Rhodes, Inc,
Hartford, Conn. The plea for an injunc-
ton in the suits alleges that contract with
the Rhodes firm prohibits the Shaws from
engaging in the parking meter business for
five years from Jan. IT. 1887. ii
1t does not seem like good business for
the city to rush headlongs into contract
with the Trafico Parking Meter company
The sensible thing to do, it seems to The
Citizen, would be at least to await the out
come of the suits. If contract is entered
into and if it later develops the Trafico
company is illegally engaged in the park
ing meter business, Key West would be
cut on some kind of legal limb. We do
not believe it advisable for the city to put
itself in that position.
According to we'll authenticated re-
ports, the Trafico company recently sold
the city of Miami 400 meters for $4,000,
which is a rate of $50 meter The city
council has authorized Mayor Albury to
enter into contract with Trafico for meters
at the rate of $45 meter, which is a
spread of SIS between the price charged
the city of Miami and that charged the
city Of Key West That seems unreason-
able and certainly should be investigated.
Parking meters need servicing daily
and must be watched constantly Expert
ence has shown that such meters can be
operated with slugs and that they may be
entered easily by thieves Key West does
not have sufficient police for the proper
protection of these devices. Further, the
question of servicing of the meters would
become problem if the present suits
against the Trafico company are decided
against the company.
The Citizen holds no brief for any
parking meter company or for any par
ticular kind of meter Reports have been
spread throughout the city that all the
companies involved in bidding for the con-
tract to furnish parking meters to Key
West were willing to make substantial fl
nancial concessions. Whether these were
to have been paid into the city treasury or
diverted into other channels is question
no one so far has been able to answer. The
only concession the city appears certain to
get is five free meters with each. 100 pur-
chased. 5x 1891 ha
Besides these questions, Mayor AL
bury has before him number of protests
against installation of parking devices in
this city. Concensus of those interviewed
by The Citizen is against the meters, so the
city's chief executive will be performing
public service if he refuses to enter into
contracts for the parking meters-at least
at this time