The Meter Feeder

Joanne Schrioch is an antimeter maid in Whitehorse (pop. 11,084), territorial capital of the Canadian Yukon.

An antimeter maid? It all goes back to 1968 when the town fathers installed 340 parking meters in the ten-block downtown section to augment the city's modest revenues. The meters did not produce much until five months ago when Whitehorse hired an energetic local girl, Valerie Matechuk, 26, to police the meters and hand out $2 tickets to overtime parkers. Hot-footing it around her circuit at least twice an hour, Valerie has so far issued thousands of dollars' worth of citations. In the process, downtown store owners complain, she has driven a lot of business away to a recently opened shopping center.

Last month Bob Erlam, publisher of the Whitehorse Star (whose mock-Latin motto is "Illegitimi non carborundum" or "Don't let the bastards grind you down"), decided that it was time to curb Valerie's ticketing. His solution: the deployment of an "antimeter maid" who would make the same circuit as Valerie, and feed almost expired meters with nickels instead of issuing tickets. Her wages (about $90 a week) and expenses would be paid by Erlam, Hougen's Ltd., a downtown department store, and contributions received from grateful nonticketed motorists.

Erlam hired Joanne Schrioch, a 20-year-old physical-education college graduate, for the job. Armed with a supply of nickels, plus leaflets explaining her job to vehicle owners and suggesting donations, she started work Nov. 8. Since then, she has put coins in nearly 900 nearly expired meters, but to avoid any conflict with the law has not touched the fully expired ones, leaving those to Valerie's mercies. Joanne's antimeter activity has met with a warm reception in frosty Whitehorse; contributions so far have reached $500. She even gets along well with Meter Maid Matechuk; the two girls often meet on their rounds, and sometimes have lunch together.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.