LAWRENCE — The municipal court system is sinking under the burden of hundreds of contested traffic tickets stemming from the new red light camera system at the Route 1 and Bakers Basin Road-Franklin Corner Road intersection, a judge told council this week.

Municipal Court Judge Kevin Nerwinski said the camera system, installed in October, caused 1,104 tickets to be issued to motorists in January alone.

“It puts a strain on the court staff, in terms of phone calls; people are not happy with this red light program, so there are extended phone calls, and there’s a lot of manpower that goes into administratively handling this,” Nerwinski said.

Of the 1,104 tickets issued in January, 929 have been resolved with motorists paying the $140 in fine, officials said. Three of the tickets were dismissed, and the rest remain pending, officials said. (Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly overstated the number of tickets that had been dismissed.)

Township officials installed the red light camera system and gave it a trial run in October and early November. They had hoped to make $100,000 in ticket revenue from the system this year.

However, Nerwinski, speaking before council Tuesday night as part of his overview of the court’s 2012 departmental budget, said the traffic court is feeling the strain of the sudden rise in traffic cases.

“We’re a really busy court. We have a lot of different types of cases. As you know, we have major highways, we have malls and shopping centers, and we have a very diverse ethnic demographic as well,” Nerwinski said. “And we do okay. It’s a significant challenge for everyone that works for the court, but we’re holding our own.”

Currently, there are five full-time court employees, including an acting court administrator, two deputy court administrators, a cashier and keyboarding clerk, Nerwinski said.

There’s also a part-time assistant who is expected to leave in two weeks, and two paid court attendants for safety, Nerwinski said.

Nerwinski also said the court is in need of two new computers to handle the court business.

The red light cameras are maintained by American Traffic Systems, and company spokesman Charles Territo said yesterday no violations are issued until photographic evidence is reviewed by a police officer.

“We do an initial review at ATS, and forward events we believe are violations to the city,” Territo said.

The camera company is paid a flat fee of $4,750 per month per camera by Lawrence, but can be paid less if the number of violations issued doesn’t cover the cost of the cameras in that month.

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