ATHOL – The Parking Benefits District Oversight Committee has voted to suspend what has been a tradition of free street-side parking in downtown Athol between Thanksgiving and the New Year.
The vote at the committee’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27, was unanimous.
The move was recommended by committee member Mary Holtorf, who said some residents in the downtown area, as well as some merchants and employees, take advantage of the month-long parking fee moratorium to park in spaces meant for shoppers well beyond the two-hour limit mandated by the town’s bylaws. She added another option would be to limit the free parking to two weeks in December.
Heather DiNitto, owner of Main Street business MassDiscount and a member of the committee, said she supports doing away with the moratorium because people do pay.
“If they want to park for a half-hour or hour, they’ll pop a quarter or two in (the meter) and that’s it,” she said. “They’re going to go where it’s convenient, whether it’s free or not.”
Committee member Marc Morgan felt that suspending the free parking in December would help downtown business owners.
“I think for people going to downtown Athol, whether it’s a dollar or two cents, it’s not going to make any difference,” Morgan said.
DiNitto agreed with Holtorf that there has been abuse of the free parking in the past.
“Whenever they know they’re not going to get a ticket for not feeding the meter, they park there for hours,” DiNitto said,
Committee Chair Gary Deyo said that, despite any recommendation from the committee, the Select Board and town manager “are going to do what they want to do anyway. But we can make that recommendation. We can tell them that, as far as we’re concerned [doing away with the moratorium] won’t have a negative effect on the downtown area.”
Contacted by the Athol Daily News, Select Board Chair Bill Chiasson said he was surprised by the news and that the free parking has been “something the town has always done. I can’t recall a year that went by where we didn’t have free parking during the holidays.”
Deyo said he would contact Planning and Development Director Eric Smith and Town Manager Shaun Suhoski to make them aware of the committee’s decision. The final decision on doing away with the free parking would ultimately fall to the Select Board.
At the recommendation of the Downtown Vitality Committee, voters approved creation of a Parking Benefits District at the 2021 Annual Town Meeting. Previously, money generated by parking meters was deposited into the town’s general fund, but is now deposited into a separate account overseen by the Oversight Committee.
The committee recommends use of those funds for downtown improvements such as new meters, street improvements, beautification efforts and other projects. It also provides funding for a parking ambassador, who checks for meter violations and issues tickets 10 hours a week.