Ogunquit News
Parking fees lowered in Perkins Cove
By C. Ayn Douglass
OGUNQUIT - The Paid Parking Ad-Hoc Committee held its first meeting in mid-September and while a permanent time and fee schedule for Perkins Cove has not been resolved, the committee agreed to initiate policies for the shoulder season extending to Columbus Day that pleased cove business owners and visitors alike.The committee is made up of business people from Main Street, Perkins Cove and the beach, as well as Frank Broomfield of the Ogunquit Budget Committee, and chaired by John Abbott of the Board of Selectmen. The committee chose to tackle the issue brought forward earlier in the spring by Amy Forbes, owner of Perkins Cove Candy, of the inequity of the fee schedule among the five paid lots in the town.
Forbes believed the cove fee of $3 per hour beginning at 8 a.m., with a maximum time permitted of two hours, was a primary cause of businesses in the cove realizing a revenue loss over the last two summers. The committee apparently agreed and instituted a mid-week fee of $2 per hour with a maximum of three hours permitted from Tuesday through Thursday during the shoulder season. From Friday through Monday the original fee schedule applies.
Visitor Services Coordinator Kevin O'Neil, who serves as an advisor to the committee, spoke with the cove business owners prior to the meeting and most of them agreed that the fees were too high and the maximum time allowed to park was to short.
"Allow up to three hours parking. Two hours is not long enough to do the shops and get something to eat or take a boat ride," said Billy Tower of Barnacle Billy's and Billy's, Etc.
Tower was a proponent of the fee being set at $2 per hour and to relax the "no left turn" regulation at the ticket booth. Traffic is tied up when a motorist is unable to make a left turn, but wants to make the loop again to look for an open spot. The only option the driver has is to turn into one of the private lots and back out, causing snarls in the traffic flow.
The committee meetings will be ongoing as its charge is to survey and evaluate public parking throughout the town to establish a fair and equitable policy.
Ogunquit Police Chief Pat Arnaudin confirmed that the town has received the $1.2 million that it budgets into its revenue stream annually to defray the property tax burden on its residents. This amount does not reflect the monies collected in parking tickets.
