Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Cell Phones Parked here

To be summoned to court is not a happy event for most folks. And to get to court and find that your cell phone is not allowed can be a real bummer. If you have time you can take it back to your car. But if you are running late, you are going to have to pitch the cellphone or find a unsecured hiding place for the cellphone. It does not take long for folks to learn that court house folks are not your most user friendly kind of people.


But Attorney Sam Bolinger has stepped into help the court goers. He has created a new business for the City of Fort Wayne, according to Dionne Waugh of the Journal Gazette.
Local attorney Sam Bolinger, 48, applied for and received a transient merchant’s permit about two weeks ago from the city. This will allow him to set up a storage cart and charge money for holding cell phones and electronic storage devices outside the Allen County Courthouse
.

This is the entrepreneurial spirit that exist in our town. Bolinger could have taken the concept from a young woman whose earlier attempt at providing such a service for the court goers. when the banning of cell phone was implemented on a cold January day. The woman, Jacqui Dowdell upon learning about the cellphone ban decided to stand outside the court house and offer to hold the cellphones.
I think it's totally outrageous. I think there are other alternatives than a complete ban on cell phones," she said as she watched many people walk into the building only to step out moments later, look around grimacing and wonder what to do with their phones
in an earlier article written by Dionne Waugh.
Two months later, Bolinger went one step further and applied for a license and has a secure holding place for cell phones. Court house official scoff at the service because their perceptive is that only bus riders go to criminal court.

They question whether someone who rides the bus or gets dropped off for court will have the money to pay to store a phone and whether people will walk to Bolinger’s stand rather than just going back to their car.

“It’s not well thought out,” Ulrich said.
. But if Bolinger is successful, (even getting cell phone endorsements, maybe) in the new venture that will prove the not to user friendly people wrong. If not, the venture was good marketing of his other business, as an attorney.

1 comment:

  1. You can't take the cell phone even if it's turned off? That's about as silly as the smokeing ban.

    ReplyDelete