Parking fees just went up at Weirs Beach

By RICK GREEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — Get ready to pay more to park in The Weirs Beach area.

Fees will double to $1 an hour, the City Council decided Monday night.

Motorists will go to a kiosk where they can use coins or a credit card to pay for parking, no dollar bills allowed.

The kiosks, which will cover more than 200 spaces, will be in operation from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. from the Saturday preceding Memorial Day to the Monday after Columbus Day. The rest of the year, the kiosks will be unbolted and put in storage.

Still to be resolved is the exact mix of longer- and shorter-term parking.

City Manager Scott Myers will meet with local businesses to work that out.

Several hours of parking would be best for spots near businesses whose customers stay for extended periods. Other spaces should have a shorter duration, allowing for more spots to be available as customers come and go.

"There's a happy balance between shorter-term and longer-term parking needs," Myers said. "If you're a lunchtime restaurant, customers don't need five-hour spots. If you're a business offering a three-hour cruise, or you're a dance club, you may need a longer longer-term spaces."

Workers will monitor the kiosks. People who neglect to pay for a spot or whose time has run out could get a $10 parking ticket.

Also under the revised parking ordinance, motorcyclists get a break. If two motorcycles are in one spot and there is a parking violation, only one ticket will be issued, but both motorcyclists would be liable, and they could split the cost. Under previous rules, two tickets would be issued. It is legal for two motorcycles to use one spot.

At the public meeting Monday, there were no objections to the parking fee increase.

The fees are still below those at state-owned Seacoast area beaches, where the summer fee is $2 per hour. Portsmouth has fees of $1.75 an hour in high density areas, and Concord, which has a fee of 75 cents an hour, is increasing its fees.

Parking kiosks will also be installed at the Endicott Beach parking lot and the parking fee there will go from $10 a day to $2 an hour, which mean that someone who parked at the beach for 10 hours will pay $20.

A local businessmen urged the City Council to keep customers in mind.

Capt. Jim Morash of Mount Washington Cruises urged the city to find a way to keep the new parking system simple, with adequate instructions, clear signs and logical time requirements, so customers know where to park and how long to park.

"Whatever is decided, we would hope it's decided with the philosophy that we want to be a tourist-friendly area," Morash said.

He noted the city has made a major investment in trying to improve the Weirs Beach area, including placing utility lines underground.

"We built it and hopefully the people will come," Morash said. "What we don't want is customers come in there and have a bad experience, and the quickest way for a bad experience to occur is an insidious situation with a parking ordinance that is confusing, which we've had in the past."