Published: June 30, 2008 02:02 pm      

Time expires for meter attendant

31-year employee retires as city eliminates remaining parking meters

After 31 years with the Logansport Police Department, 93-year-old Tony Pasquale knew it was time to move on. Still, that didn’t make the decision to eliminate his job any easier.

“It was a difficult decision, but we’re looking for every dollar we can find,” said Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher. “We had to do what was right for the city.”

Fincher and the Logansport Board of Public Works and Safety approved a request last week from Police Chief Randy Rozzi to remove the remaining 52 parking meters from downtown. The move is aimed at helping the city save some money as it prepares to lose $2.1 million in property tax revenue during the next two years.

Rozzi’s request said the few remaining meters, all located at a small city lot at Fifth and North streets, were not cost effective.

That meant continuing to pay Pasquale roughly $12,000 a year as a meter attendant wasn’t going to be cost effective, either.

Following his retirement as a railroad worker, tending the city’s parking meters had been Pasquale’s part-time job since 1978.

“That’s really a long time,” Rozzi noted of Pasquale’s tenure with the traffic division. “When he was here back in the day, the meters were on every street and every side street in town. He worked on the meters and kept them running, but it got to be where there was no revenue coming in on the meters.”

Rozzi said the city had taken in only $21 from the meters in the first six months of 2008. The meters brought in just $72 throughout all of last year.

The city began phasing out the meters several years ago when it switched to permit parking in many lots throughout downtown.

Pasquale, who also helped with bicycle registration, often used parts from the decommissioned meters to keep the others operational. Throughout the years, spare parts were harder to come by and Pasquale was known to make the occasional part to keep the meters running, said Fincher.

“Those meters were old,” said Rozzi. “We were taking parts off one to fix another. Sooner or later we were going to run out of parts.”

Not only were the meters showing signs of age, Rozzi said that in the last few years Pasquale worked for the department he lost nearly all of his hearing. The chief said other members of the department looked out for Pasquale, ensuring that he made it to work every day and occasionally looking in on him at his residence.

“When we talked to him about it, he said he was ready to leave,” Rozzi said of Pasquale. “This was his life coming in here every day, but he said he was thinking about leaving.”

The department honored Pasquale by throwing a party on his last day, and Fincher delivered a proclamation naming June 20 Tony Pasquale day in Logansport.

In 31 years with the department, Pasquale had worked under six administrations, which Rozzi said no one else had ever done.

“He was here when I got here and he had been here forever,” said Rozzi. “He came in to help when all that was booming, but with no meters, we just didn’t have a reason to have him anymore. With the tax situation, we were trying to make cuts, but that wasn’t the only reason by a long shot. It was just time.”

Carla Knapp can be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or via e-mail at carla.knapp@pharostribune.com