Chicago city sticker deadline extended 1 day after glitch

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Long delays forced Chicago to issue a last-minute extension for people trying to buy city stickers.

The new deadline to buy new city stickers without late fees is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. An additional $60 late fee will be charged starting Thursday.

City Clerk Susana Mendoza apologized for the glitch and said things are back up and running.

"We're giving people a whole 'nother 24-hour period to get in compliance," Mendoza said. "After that, I don't think people will be able to complain."

She said motorists should not buy the sticker online at this point. Drivers need to go a Currency Exchange or the City Clerk's Office at City Hall in the Loop and have it displayed by the end of the day. Enforcement crews will not issue tickets for expired city stickers until Thursday.

Some city drivers waited in line for hours at local Currency Exchange locations Tuesday night. The city said a computer slow-down caused the bottleneck.

"The sequence got jammed, and then it was hard for it to print out," Serrita Clayborne explained. "They said the system crashed."

Dozens of people were in line for three or more hours at the Currency Exchange near East 71st Place and South Jeffrey Boulevard.

"It's been a nightmare. Some of those people have been to four Currency Exchanges in the last four hour hours," Teena Hendricks said. "The story was the systems are down, we're printing one every 30 to 45 minutes and they have like a hundred people in the line."

The old stickers officially expired June 30. But a two-week grace period gave drivers a little more time to buy the decal.

Great Lakes Currency Exchange in Lincoln Park opened up Wednesday morning after a tough night.

"There was no yelling or anything like that," Gerhard Fichtel said. "We got seats for people brought seats out for the seniors and talked to people. We got the line done."

Mendoza also said a new year round renewal system is in the works. Instead of having all 1.3 million vehicle owners in the city rush to get vehicle sticker by the end of the June, deadlines will be spread throughout the year in the future.