NASHUA – Keep feeding that meter, for now.

While restaurants in the downtown area struggle to stay afloat with food delivery and take-out, the city of Nashua still is monitoring expired time limits on meters and issuing citations accordingly, city officials said Wednesday.

Major cities like Chicago; Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles; and San Francisco, all have relaxed their parking enforcement as part of the emergency response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). And with only essential businesses open in downtown Nashua, parking spaces are plentiful. Yet Nashua is still issuing tickets.

Some cities, like Burbank, California, have been called out for aggressively ticketing cars.

“This isn’t meant as a free-for-all,” a Burbank police department spokesman said. “These are things that are still being enforced.”

An email from city of Nashua parking manager Jill Stansfield, suggested that there is no parking moratorium for parking in place for Nashua.

“Parking rules and regulations are still in effect,” she said. “For daytime parking in downtown, folks may use the PayByPhone App to pay for metered parking in addition to using the pay stations and meters.”

Stansfield said that if people are looking for a parking permit for the parking garages, the surface lots, or overnight on-street permits, “we are still able to assist with these requests as well.”

A woman ticketed earlier this week on Main Street called the violation for an expired meter, “frustrating.”

“I’m trying to support the locals,” she said. “I was in the area, and thought I’d stop downtown and pick up some food. I thought that would be a nice thing to do. That backfired.”

An effort to reach Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess via phone on Wednesday by the Telegraph was unsuccessful. 

In her email, Stansfield said there would be parking forgiveness for overnight parking for downtown area residents, provided they called to alert parking enforcement that they were doing so.

“We know and understand this is a tough time for everyone and more folks may be home during the day and overnight,” she stated. “So, for the folks that may need overnight exceptions to park on the street, they may do so by calling into the enforcement line at 603-589-3077 or they may fill out the form online at www.nashuanh.gov/1189/Overnight-Parking.”

Another option, Stanfield said, was for those who may need overnight parking to park in the Elm and High street parking garages or in the municipal surface lots overnight and on the weekends for no charge. 

For information on parking and paying tickets, visit www.nashuanh.gov/parking or reach out directly to the city’s parking email at parking@nashuanh.gov. 

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