OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Five miles per hour over the speed limit is $105, 10 miles per hour over the limit is $115 and 25 miles per hour over the limit is $135. These are the general prices for speeding tickets in Ottawa County, but ever wonder what happens to the money after paying for that traffic time?
Speeding fines, criminal violations and civil infraction penalties go to supporting the local libraries.
This year the Ottawa County Treasurer Bradley Slagh announced that over $800,000 in collection fines will go to the nine libraries in the county.
“In Georgetown Township, penal fines are an important source of funding for the Library, and as a revenue source, rank second only to the Township’s appropriation to the department,” said Pamela Myers, Director of the Georgetown Township Public Library. “The Library utilizes revenue from penal fines to support programs, services, and collections (e.g., books, DVDs, music CDs, eBooks, audiobooks, etc.). In short, funding from penal fines assists the Township in providing invaluable access and service to Georgetown Township residents through its public library.”
The monetary amount is distributed depending on the population size served at each library.
“In recent years the total has ranged from $700,000 to over $900,000 depending on the citations written using the state penal code and the fines levied by the court,” said Brad Slagh. “This year the total fines collected and disbursed are very close to the amounts that were dispersed in 2016.”
