ATHOL — Construction taking place in and around downtown Athol is resulting in a break for motorists parking along Main and Exchange streets.
The Selectboard voted at its Sept. 2 meeting to suspend the need to feed downtown parking meters for at least two weeks, with that suspension likely to be extended for much longer at the board’s next meeting.
Town Manager Shaun Suhoski told the board, “We’ve had some complaints that, because of the Lord Pond Plaza work, people going to the dentist’s office and some of the services on Exchange Street have less ability to park (in the plaza) and have to park on the street. I guess the question is, can we waive the strict enforcement (of the meters) until the parking eases up again at Lord Pond Plaza?”
Board member Brian Dodge took exception to the idea that enforcement should be suspended solely on Exchange Street.
“I would make a motion that there’s no parking enforcement anywhere,” he said. “You can’t tell the parking ambassador to look the other way on Exchange Street and then have him write five times as many tickets on Main Street.”
“Because of the amount of construction we have around our downtown right now,” said board chair Rebecca Bialecki. “People are driving every which way. People want to go to a business on this side of the street, but ‘now I’m headed the wrong way; where do I park over here? Now I have to turn around and go back.’ It’s a nightmare right now because of the construction. I would back up Mr. Dodge and say the whole thing should be waived as long as this construction is happening.”
Board member Mitch Grosky said he might support that proposal but expressed concern about downtown businesses potentially losing customers due to people living downtown deciding to park their vehicles on the street all day.
Bialecki pointed out that, even without the use of the meters, the town limits parking in
downtown parking spaces to two hours. “Officers can enforce that,” she said. “They just haven’t. We have a two-hour limit, and a two-hour limit is a two-hour limit, no matter what.”
“So, somebody can’t park downtown for the whole day and expect to not be ticketed?” Grosky asked.
“Right,” Bialecki responded. “There’s still a penalty for anyone parking longer than two hours. So, that corrects the problem for the businesses with residents parking all day.”
Suhoski suggested that any decision on suspending enforcement be held off until the board’s next meeting, but Dodge pushed back. He asked the town manager when the construction at Lord Pond Plaza is scheduled for completion. Suhoski said he couldn’t give a firm date, “But I’ll know by our next meeting because we have a construction meeting coming up.”
The board ultimately voted unanimously to suspend downtown parking enforcement, with the exception of the two-hour limit, until its next meeting on Sept. 16. At that time the board will, unless some members should change their minds, vote to extend the suspension until the estimated date of the completion of work at Lord Pond Plaza.