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Attention! The Orange City Council has decided to mark preferred parking spaces for veterans on municipal property.
The council voted 5-0 to set aside a parking space in each of three city lots: one in front of WAVA Hall behind City Hall; one at Mill Lake Park; and one in the Holly Avenue parking lot at Veterans Memorial Park.
“This is a great way to honor our vets,” Chaleak Grier, a city administrative assistant, said.
Each space reserved for veterans will be marked with a sign reading “Veteran Parking Only,” and each of the spaces will be adjacent to a handicapped-parking space.
If an able-bodied driver or someone without a handicapped license plate or a placard parks in a space reserved for a disabled person, he or she may be given a citation and fined as much as $250 for the violation.
However, there will be no such enforcement of the veterans-only parking.
“There would be no fine,” Grier said.
City officials estimate the signs and their placement will cost about $90.
Some businesses have implemented similar initiatives. The Lowe’s store at 901 Saxon Blvd. in Orange City already has veterans-only parking spaces within easy walking distance of the store’s front entrance.
“We would probably be the first city in Volusia County [to do this],” Grier said.