SAN BENITO – San Benito announced they will be honoring veterans with their own parking spaces.

The city hosted the Silent March Monday morning to honor fallen servicemen this Memorial Day.

Brownsville resident Ramiro Gomez, 86, said the event brought back memories of his years serving in the Army cleaning up after World War II in Europe.

“Our main job was to clean up the streets and the bridges, and try and get all those mines where people won’t run into them or get in an explosion,” he said.

Gomez said he heard about San Benito’s plans to set up veteran-only parking spaces at its government buildings.

Although he lives in Brownsville, he said he frequents San Benito. Gomez added it would be greatly appreciated if only those with military experience parked in them.

“It helps the veterans, especially the ones that are disabled; that cannot walk to their destination,” he said.

Victor Garza, organizer of the San Benito Memorial Day tribute, said he doesn’t think the veteran-only spaces can be monitored to see if a non-veteran is parked in them. However, he said there are ways the military community could know if a vehicle belongs to a veteran.

“Most of the time, we’ll be able to tell if there’s a veteran in that vehicle. He is designating his car. He will have a bumper sticker, something to say it’s military,” he said.

San Benito Police Chief Michael Galvan told CHANNEL 5 NEWS he plans to place two veteran-only parking spaces at the city’s police station this week.

He said he wants to introduce an ordinance to the city council to place these spaces at every city government building in the next month.

Galvan said he’s researching the legality of determining whether someone parking in the spot is a veteran and, if they are not, how much they can be fined.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS also learned the parking signs come at a cost to San Benito taxpayers.

According to Galvan, the signs themselves cost $25 each and each pole to hold the signs cost $5 to $10.

The San Benito Works Department will handle the installation process which will take approximately five minutes per sign.