Borough Seeks to Curtail Warehousing of Taxi Cabs in Lot

The Borough of Matawan continues to struggle with certain local businesses using up too many of the parking spaces in the municipal lot on Little Street between Main and Broad streets. Mayor Buccellato, who was interviewed on the subject in the 19 Jun 2014 edition of The Independent, said the spaces are meant for customers of businesses along Main Street, not for the warehousing of taxi cabs.

The mayor tried to generalize the issue, as if other businesses might also be abusing the privilege of parking in the lot. But this isn't the first time I've heard that one or more of the taxi services is the culprit. Patsy's Taxi and Costera are located right there on Little Street; however, the parking issue didn't seem to arise until Costera came along.

Costera uses all the kiss n ride spaces along the curb in front of the old Aberdeen station, so they've got one strike against them in my book. The other cab companies have nothing good to say about Costera, which has given them another strike. I don't know how accurate their claims against that company and its drivers are.

The public library had a problem with local residents using the library lot and using up spaces for patrons. Signs were eventually put up, but I suspect the abuse of the library lot continues.

Mayor Buccellato may deal with the parking issue by charging businesses a fee to use a controlled number of spaces in the lot. At least that's one of his ideas. He realizes the issue wasn't fully addressed last time it came up, so he plans to find a robust solution by the end of this summer.