Coming To Mead: ‘3-Hour Maximum’ Signs To Deter Long-Term Parking

Commuters, some out-of-state, and guests at nearby condominiums appear to be using Mead Park for long-term parking, prompting the town to take action, officials said Wednesday.

Public works has ordered up ‘3-hour maximum parking’ signs and soon will place them throughout Mead in order to empower parking enforcement officers to ticket the violators, members of the Park & Recreation Commission said at their regular monthly meeting.

“The cars have three-quarters inches of that stuff coming off of the trees now,” commissioner Andrea Peterson said at the group’s meeting, held in the Douglass Room at Lapham Community Center (“pollen,” others supplied). “There are cars that are laden with it.”

“There are cars with New York state plates, cars with Ohio plates. People must have out-of-town guests that just leave their cars there.”

She added: “One of the local condo associations says part of the spiel when you buy a condo is that yes, you can park at Mead.”

Recreation Director Steve Benko clarified that after the Park Mead Condominiums were sold, the new owner limited residents to a single car, “and some people have two cars.”

As a result, those residents at first were told to go park at Mead—a situation that the selectmen have addressed with the condos, Benko said.

Peterson said she spotted five rental cars that appeared to have been parked long-term at Mead—“two from Hertz and three from Avis, some with New York plates.”

Commissioner Doug Richardson said he sees New York plates on cars parked long-term at Mead “every day.”

“That drives me crazy,” he said. “There must be guys that drive up and then commute.”

The three-hour signs will be posted throughout the park. Commissioner Jason Milligan said he understood why it needed to be done, though “it’s too bad, because we have too many damn signs.”