Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers is warning the public that not paying parking tickets in Clarinda may land you in jail. Brothers said as an example, 21-year old James Alan Kinghorn, of Shenandoah, was arrested Tuesday evening on a warrant for failure to pay parking tickets issued to Kinghorn over the last couple of months. As a result Kinghorn ended up spending a night in the Page County Jail.
The Chief Brothers says the City of Clarinda goes out of its way to give individuals an opportunity to get their parking tickets paid. If a parking ticket is issued, the violator has thirty days to pay the $15.00 fine for a simple parking violation to city hall. If the parking ticket is not paid within the allotted thirty days, the police department sends a letter in the mail to the registered owner of the vehicle ticketed informing the person they have 14 days to pay the parking violation from the date of the letter and that the parking violation is now $20.
If not paid, a complaint will be filed with the court and a warrant may be issued for the person’s arrest. Brothers said that if the parking ticket ends up in the courts, the costs of the initial parking ticket ends up being about $100. He added, that it’s not his desire to utilize his department’s resources in arresting people for unpaid parking tickets, but he makes it clear that if you are issued a parking ticket, you shouldn’t throw it away, because that approach may just land you in jail.