What's the point in having members of the community vote in something if the plan is to go against the vote anyway? That's exactly what happened in Herkimer, New York recently at a Town Board meeting when the conversation of parking meters in Herkimer was brought up

A "lengthy study" was conducted to determine the necessity for parking meters in the downtown area. Included in said study was a community survey and conversations with residents and business owners.

The results were provided to the Village Board at the December 19th Board of Trustees Meeting, according to the Herkimer Police Department.

-83.8% of Village residents indicated that the meters were not necessary.
-83.5% of people frequenting the Downtown more than 3 times per week indicated that the meters were not necessary.
-85.7% of Downtown business owners indicated that the meters were not necessary.
Overall:
-91.7% indicated that the meters were not necessary on Mohawk St.
-87.5% indicated that the meters were not necessary on S Main St.
-83.3% indicated that the meters were not necessary on N Main St.
-84.4% indicated that the meters were not necessary on N Washington St.
-74% indicated that the meters were not necessary on Mary St.
-80.2% indicated that the meters were not necessary Court St.
-84.4% indicated that the meters were not necessary on Albany St.

That's the majority, if I'm mathing correctly. So...the verdict?

"The Village Board has determined that the meters will remain and enforcement of metered parking will resume on Monday, January 2nd, 2023"

Wait, what?

This has sent the public into a frenzy in the comment section of the Facebook post announcing the decision. There's over 1.3 thousand comments, mostly reacting with GIFs, of locals expressing their opinions.

Some of those reactions were....

and...

and....

then

and this...

Understandably so, this decision has a lot of people scratching their heads. We have reached out to the Town Supervisor for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.

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