THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502080078
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: MY JOB
SOURCE: BY MATT BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
EVERYONE ELSE in town plunks money into parking meters. Bobby E. Harrison takes it out.
Legally.
He's been Portsmouth's ``parking meter repairman'' since February 1986. That means he empties the 600 or so meters every week or two and fixes them when they're broke - sometimes innovating with paper clips. He also maintains the city's five parking garages, doing everything from replacing lights to fixing those concrete ``bumper blocks.''
``It keeps me busy,'' said Harrison, 33, of Chesapeake. ``Also, I make from scratch the spare gate arms. A lot of times we have broken gates, you know, people drive through the gates and break them.''
You're more likely to remember seeing Harrison in the downtown business district, rolling his knee-high, gray-metal portable safe from meter to meter. But he never sees the silver until he counts it in his office - it goes directly from locked meter into locked canister inside the safe.
``Usually we average $650 a week on the streets, and about $1,800 every two weeks on the lots,'' he said.
``It's right heavy,'' he said of the coins he collects. He estimates the take from the lots weighs about 150 pounds, and the money from the street meters weighs in at 75 to 80 pounds each week.
``We find a lot of foreign coins. I've found plastic coins, game tokens, paper clips, matchsticks, you name it. I've even had gum stuck in the meters.''
While repairing things is his favorite part of the job, collecting the money is up there, too: He loves being on his own, outside of any office, moving around and having plenty of time to think. But it's not without worries. For one, he can't forget that he's ferrying around a lot of change.
``I'm by myself on the street and, of course we can't carry any type of weapons, and sometimes I do, uh, get, uh, sort of anxious,'' Harrison said.
``Of course, I look around a lot. I look around corners. I'm very careful, because you never know. Usually people aren't dumb enough to try and pick up a heavy cart and run with it, but you never know.''
And he resists the temptation to slip an ``Out of Order'' sign onto meters when he's out and about, instead dutifully dropping in the correct change.
``So far,'' he said, ``I've never gotten a ticket, so I'm pretty careful about that. It wouldn't look too good.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JIM WALKER/Staff
Bobby E. Harrison empties Portsmouth's parking meters.
by CNB