Ellsworth hires parking officer Full-time position is a first for city

ELLSWORTH – Brandon Bonney, 18, had a busy day Tuesday, his first day as Ellsworth’s parking enforcement officer.

Bonney wrote 35 parking violation tickets, most of them to people who exceeded the two-hour parking limit on Main Street and in city-owned parking lots at City Hall and on Franklin Street.

With the help of Bonney, the city is cracking down on motorists who violate local parking regulations.

Bonney said he’s enjoying his job so far and hasn’t yet come across anyone who has been upset about getting a ticket.

“I’ve been told I will,” the young man said.

Lt. Harold Page of the Ellsworth Police Department predicted Bonney would write 40 tickets before the day was through.

Bonney, a Lamoine resident who will be a senior this fall at Mount Desert Island High School, will work five days a week throughout the summer enforcing the city’s parking regulations, Page said.

Bonney is the first full-time employee the city has had to devote strictly to parking enforcement, according to Page. Ellsworth police officers have done parking patrols in the past, but generally they have been too busy to consistently enforce the city’s parking rules, he said.

“The downtown merchants wanted it, or pushed for more enforcement,” Page said Tuesday. “If it works out, then we’ll probably keep doing it.”

At $10 per violation, the tickets Bonney wrote Tuesday will generate $350 in revenue for the city, as long as each violator pays the ticket, according to Page.

“We figure as long as he makes enough pay for himself, and the parking gets better downtown, it’s worth it,” Page said.