Parking in downtown Tamaqua, or rather the lack of parking, continues to be an issue as Tamaqua Borough Council learned during its Tuesday night meeting.

According to Tamaqua Police Chief Rick Weaver, the borough has always had an in-house policy of refunding parking tickets in cases where there were confirmed jammed meters. However, this problem has started to increase lately, and the chief requested that borough council put an end to this practice and start enforcing the ticket violations.Weaver said the existing policy involves a ticketed person bringing the ticket to the station and paying it, then sending notification to the water department that the meter is plugged, waiting for confirmation that the meter is in fact nonoperational, and then refunding the ticket."It puts a burden on us," he said. Weaver compared the situation to a nonfunctional red light."You still stop there if the light isn't working," he said. He requested that the police department be allowed to enforce the ticket and not grant refunds. Council said since the policy is in-house, it could be changed. Weaver recommended that people parking in the downtown do not park at a meter if it is not functional, or they will be ticketed.Later in the meeting, Mayor Christian Morrison brought up the possibility of issuing parking permits to business owners, similar to those currently offered to residents along certain sections of the business corridor in town.Morrison said he had been approached by a local business owner who had been ticketed while parked outside his business on West Broad Street."They're taking orders, deliveries, helping customers," said Morrison. "It puts a burden on them to have to also watch the meter." Morrison asked that the parking and traffic committee review the possibility of issuing monthly permits to the business owners in the same areas of town where resident passes are available.Parking passes are not available for anyone in the central downtown area, but are available to residents along the more residential metered areas along Pine Street and West Broad Street.The parking and traffic committee also issued a handicap parking space for 202 Orwigsburg St.