Dissolution of Keeseville Village Court has residents dismayed and disenfranchised

By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG

KEESEVILLE -- A minor traffic ticket has Alicia Laramie-Dickerson fuming.

And it's not just because she disagrees with the citation, but that it's left her without a license and no way of getting it back anytime soon.

Her case, like numerous others, has been collecting dust in Keeseville Village Court for almost a year.

Village officials decided to dissolve the court last year after it was left empty of justices -- a cost-saving move they said would send future cases to town courts in AuSable and Chesterfield.

The problem for many, though, is that for months officials didn't have a solution to resolve the cases that have been pending for months.

TRAFFIC TICKET

"I've been fighting to take care of this for eight months," Laramie-Dickerson said. "It's ridiculous."

Her husband, Chris, a disabled veteran who's been bringing his wife back and forth to work as she waits for her license to be reinstated, said the court situation has "really taken a toll on us. It's having a profound effect on us, and it must be on other people, too. If we're suffering, we can't be the only ones."

The Dickersons said they moved shortly after the 2004 ticket was issued and that the Department of Motor Vehicles never forwarded the ticket and license information to them. The original ticket -- for failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign -- got misplaced during the moving process and was soon forgotten.

They were not aware that her license was later suspended because the ticket remained in Village Court.

It wasn't until the couple got married last fall and Laramie-Dickerson went to change her name on her license that she learned it had been suspended.

"We've said we're willing to pay the fine, but we have no place to pay it (because the court is shut down)," Mr. Dickerson said. "We dispute running the stop sign, but we'll pay the fine just to get her license back.

"As soon as we found out, we've been trying to take care of it, but we're getting pointed every which way."