Learned the fine points of handicap parking rules

To the editor:

In response to Millie Wickham’s letter in the Aug. 27 issue of the Frontiersman, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the handicap parking. Many a time my husband has had to park way out in the parking lot because there is no handicap parking available. He even once had a lady get violent with him because while he was in the store, she parked in the marked-off space between two handicap parking spaces.

He could not get back in his van because she was parked in the space where his ramp comes down and she had the nerve to get mad at him.

I am ashamed to admit my husband and I have both been in the wrong when parking in the handicap parking. I don’t know about Palmer, but in Wasilla we have a code compliance officer. My husband is a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair, so we have handicap plates on both of our vehicles. We were at Target the other day parked in the handicap parking and my husband stayed in the car while I ran into the store. While I was in Target, code compliance came to monitor the handicap parking. My husband is a talker so he used this opportunity to speak with the officer, and boy did we learn a thing or two.

We found out we were actually out of compliance because my husband did not go into the store. The officer said the handicap space is only for the handicap person. He should have dropped me off at the front door and parked in a regular space until I came out since he did not get out of the car. I have also used a handicap space when taking my 89-year-old mother to the store — lso a non-compliant use of a handicap space. Again, I could have dropped her off at the front door and parked in a regular space and walked in myself.

While at Target that day there were about seven vehicles parked in handicap spaces. Of those seven vehicles, at least three were out of compliance. One was an older woman who stayed in the vehicle while her young driver ran into the store, another was a young woman with children, none of them were handicap and she was apparently using someone else’s handicap hanging placard, which she did not even remember to hang in the window, and the third was us. The officer gave a ticket, which comes with a fine, to the young woman that day. He let us off with a warning.

Hopefully, this will serve to educate others as it educated us. We will be in compliance from now on. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will do a thing for those people, as you put it, who think only of themselves and no one else or the lazy and inconsiderate. We will continue to pray for these people!

Teri Johnson

Wasilla