Scrooged by meters?

Okay, we can already hear you.

Here we are encouraging you to shop locally, but then you end up with a parking ticket from those unforgiving Town of Bath folks. Regular readers know this is a recurring complaint from locals and tourists alike.

We sympathize. We hope downtown business owners can sit down with council members and try to sort out some reasonable remedies one of these days.

Two ideas pop to mind, assuming the town insists on continuing to play Scrooge with meter enforcement. One thought is that businesses could give out quarters to feed the meters of customers who spend a minimum of $10 or $20, or some variation of that notion.

Even more practical would be if the Bath Town Council extended the free parking period before Christmas. This month, meters will be bagged from some time on Saturday afternoon, December 15 through Christmas Day. That’s only a small portion of the holiday season.

Why not bag those meters immediately until New Year’s Day? Then, next year, bag them starting at Thanksgiving.