The Boomerslang will get my latest disaffection.

To the Editor:

Yesterday I heard a story that made me think that there is some seriously petty action going on in this town, and that wastes taxpayer dollars.

A friend of mine who lives in a residential neighborhood requiring a residential parking permit went to get his permit renewed on Tuesday, the 2nd. The previous permit had expired on the 1st, a holiday, when government offices were closed so he couldn't get his renewal. He left first thing in the morning and returned shortly to find a $50 parking ticket on his vehicle, the same vehicle that had a sticker on it attesting to the fact that he has been in the past, right up to the day before, in fact, a resident in that same building, and that he has followed the rules and kept a permit.

Now, you might say that he should have got his permit for the coming year before the holiday, say last Friday, the 29th of August. And perhaps he could have done so. However, it strikes me that when a person has a lot of things going on, including the fortune in this town of full-time employment, that person might plan out his or her life to take care of things on the day due. And what human can be faulted for not in an occasional instance making plans ahead to take care of an item of business like this in advance of a holiday due date?

No, I think it would have been tactful and professional for the police department to have had the officer who was out looking for opportunities to add to the coffers, to have given the public a break- even until noon on Tuesday- to get their parking permits renewed. As my friend noted, a vehicle parked near his also had a ticket, but that one didn't have a previous residential permit sticker on it. His did. Why couldn't the officer have waited to see that he had gone, as he had, straight to whichever office he had to visit to renew his permit?

This I consider petty and unprofessional behavior on the part of the Laramie Police Department. Perhaps this is the only occasion on which such a thing has happened? Perhaps my friend is the only person who has been affected by thoughtlessness on the part of someone in authority here?

Thank you for affording me the space to put this concern out to the community.

Sincerely,

Lisa Cox