HOULTON, Maine — Changes to the town’s traffic ordinance include a restriction on the amount of engine braking done by larger vehicles inside the urban compact area.
“This particular ordinance took a number of sessions to revise,” Houlton Town Manager Butch Asselin said during the March 23 city council meeting. “The ordinance was last updated in the early 1990s.”
One of the highlights of the ordinance revision is that engine braking, also referred to as “jake” braking, will be barred inside the urban compact area 24 hours a day. Outside the compact area, engine braking will be prohibited between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Instead of creating fines for each particular violation, the fines will be at the discretion of a judge with a maximum amount of $250 per occurrence, the town manager explained.
Fines for parking violations also were adjusted. In the new ordinance, the fines for parking violations — two-hour — and improper parking are now $10; parking in a curb loading, commercial loading or prohibited zone or parking within 8 feet of a fire hydrant comes with a $25 fine; overnight parking nets a fine of $30; and illegally parking in a handicapped spot gains the scofflaw a $75 fine.
The town also has an option to create 15-minute parking zones in the downtown, if a business owner requests it.
The Maine Department of Transportation was involved with the policy review process and has agreed to do a review of traffic patterns in downtown Houlton and an assessment of crosswalks and parking spaces in the community, Asselin said. Results of that review will be presented at a future council session.
The next council meeting is set to begin at 6 p.m. Monday, April 13.