North Hempstead, NY - Yom Kippur Recognizers Given Parking Tickets. "Yom Kippur is not a town holiday," Say Town Officials

North Hempstead, NY - Lysa Dyber thought that because of the Jewish holiday she would be exempt from getting a ticket yesterday when she parked near a "No Parking Except Sundays and Holidays" sign while attending a synagogue in Little Neck.
But traffic officers in the Town of North Hempstead apparently answer to a higher power of their own -- the Uniform Traffic Code of North Hempstead -- and wrote her up anyway.

Dyber, of Great Neck, found a $70 ticket on her windshield when she returned to her car after services for Yom Kippur, just over the city line in Queens. She said the cars of several others who were attending services also were ticketed -- she feels improperly -- along Sound View Drive. "It's Yom Kippur," said Dyber, who said she wants the town to tear up the tickets. "I've never gotten a ticket there, my parents have never gotten a ticket there. I think it was someone who didn't know it is a holiday, or this was overzealous ticketing."

Not so, say North Hempstead officials. To qualify as a parking holiday within the town, a holiday must be included in a list of "words and phrases used in this Traffic Code." "Yom Kippur is not a town holiday," said North Hempstead spokesman David Chauvin. He said the town issued six traffic tickets along Sound View Drive early yesterday, and all were to cars parked several blocks from the synagogue. He said the town had no plans to waive the tickets.