There it is, fluttering in the wind, pinned under your windshield wiper — another love letter from the city of Ames. There it goes, into the bottomless pit of your glove compartment, wadded up on the floor, or worse yet, blowing down the street to join all the other litter.

Out of sight, out of mind isn’t a policy to try when it comes to Ames parking tickets. The city doesn’t just forget about them, contrary to wishful student thinking. The city wants your money. In fact, city officials want it bad enough to possibly get you arrested.

Then your name is in the Iowa State Daily’s police blotter. Everyone knows you were hauled in by the police, and for what? Parking tickets. Well, all right, you don’t get arrested for parking tickets exactly, but for contempt of court. Everyone knows the real reason, though.

Eric Bauer, a junior in physics on a hiatus from ISU, knows all about this. He had 12 outstanding parking tickets with warrants issued on them. He was arrested for contempt of court Tuesday when he was pulled over for not having his headlights on while delivering pizzas for a local pizza place. The interesting part is, this was his second time getting arrested for unpaid parking tickets.

Bauer, who claims to get his tickets playing the alternate-side parking game on Campus Avenue, said he thinks the whole process is crazy.

“I think it’s ridiculous to put someone in jail for parking tickets,” he said.

Bauer said it would be much more reasonable if people who refused to pay parking tickets had their driver’s licenses suspended instead of adding more money to fines they can’t pay anyway.

Bauer, whose original 12 tickets came to a total of $36, is now chipping away at a $420 fine.

According to Donna Scherr, legal services administrative assistant, the city issued 3,300 parking tickets for the slowest ticket month in 1996, and 5,600 parking tickets during the busiest month in 1996.

Judy Parks, assistant city attorney, said the city sends a reminder notice if the parking ticket hasn’t been paid. If people continue to ignore the money they owe, a summons is generated and then filed with the clerk of court.

After the paperwork has been filed, and if people continue to not respond, the city sends an employee to the home to serve a summons which informs the recipient of a date to appear in court. To avoid talking to the judge, people still have the original option of paying the fines.

If ticket-getters fail to appear in court or pay the fines, an application is then filed for a warrant. Once a warrant is out for an arrest, the warrant is entered into a statewide system.

Parks said all this doesn’t mean that the city of Ames and the police department are out to get people. “The city doesn’t want to arrest you anymore than you want to be arrested,” Parks said.