‘pay and display’ parking meters in Portsmouth

Portsmouth unveils a new system of parking meters this week, launching a pilot program to determine whether “pay and display” meters would be advantageous to the city. Six new meters have already been installed, two of them on Bow Street, two on Pleasant Street and two in the Worth parking lot on Maplewood Avenue. The meters go into operation on Thursday, Sept. 6.

Instead of feeding coins into meters located at individual parking spaces, the new system enables motorists to pay for tickets with coins or credit cards at a central location and display the receipt on the vehicle’s dashboard. The cost of parking will remain the same, and tickets will be transferable to other locations if the car owner decides to park somewhere else before the purchased time has expired.

Portsmouth parking manager Jon Frederick cited convenience as the new system’s main attraction, noting that motorists will no longer have to carry around pockets full of change and can switch spaces without paying more. He also noted the aesthetic advantage of pay and display meters, stressing that a single device can replace numerous meter posts along the street. Also, the new meters are connected to a back office server, which reports any problems to maintenance technicians.

The cost of installing the first six meters was $49,800, which was included in the city’s capital improvement budget. The plan calls for a phased approach to replacing all the city’s meters with the new equipment, beginning downtown. The pilot program will last for one year, during which residents will be asked to offer feedback on the new system.

“We have a survey that people can fill out, and they can give us feedback via phone if they’d like,” Frederick said. Other communities, such as Manchester, already use pay and display meters, and the system has been met with near universal approval elsewhere, according to Frederick.

plans for new Dover fire station unveiled

Dover Fire Chief Perry Plummer met with the Planning Board recently to discuss plans for building a new fire station in the city’s North End on Sixth Street, across from Glenwood Avenue. The city has already appropriated funds for construction of the building, and the process has now moved into the design stage, Plummer said.

“Right now, we’re starting to develop bid documents, and we have a community meeting on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.,” Plummer said. “It will go before the Conservation Commission on the 10th and then back to the Planning Board on the 11th.” The station is expected to open in September 2008—a date that has been eagerly anticipated by the Fire Department for some time.

“The North End station idea has been talked about for 25 years, so with all the growth in the North End area, it’s been decided that now is the time to do it,” Plummer said. “There’s a huge growing boom in the North End, both residentially and commercially, and it basically comes down to response times,” Plummer said. “It’s a matter of emergency and medical services and how quick can we get to the point of the problem. Fire doubles in size every minute, so every minute that we’re on the road makes it harder to contain the fire or make a rescue when we get there.”

City Manager Mike Joyal agreed that the need for a North End station is great. “There’s been two hotels added, and a number of chain restaurants that have established themselves there,” Joyal said. “The density of people both living and working there has increased a lot over the past decade, as well as traffic passing through, so there’s a greater risk of people needing to call fire and medical services. Having a station there will improve the protection of the property owners in that area, as well as the rest of the city.”

Plans currently call for a one-story, 14,500-square-foot station with a three-bay drive-through gate for emergency vehicles to enter and exit easily and quickly. The plan also includes two side buildings for offices and firefighters’ quarters.
The Planning Board appropriated $2.9 million for construction in January, Plummer said, but funds for new fire apparatus and added staff still must be approved. All told, the total cost of the project will likely be around $4 million. Come next fall, the Fire Department plans to move administrative offices from the central station to the North End and hire four new firefighters to staff it.

Borderline Beverage expands its borders in Somersworth

Pedestrians and motorists traveling through downtown Somersworth recently may have noticed construction underway outside the four-story brick building next to Borderline Beverage on Market Street. Borderline purchased the former Eagles Club building several months ago and began interior renovations during the winter. Owners plan to expand the storefront on the ground level and add apartment units to the upper floors, according to co-owner Mike Patel.

On Wednesday, Aug. 22, a portion of Market Street was closed off as excavation crews worked on the building’s water and sewer lines. Borderline purchased the building from the Somersworth Housing Authority but had to upgrade the sprinkler system to meet the fire code before it could be opened to the public, Patel said.

The convenience store, located at 20 Market St., plans to connect its current store to the new building, eventually offering more products and services. Three single-bedroom and two two-bedroom apartments will be added to the second and third floors, Patel said. Construction has been tricky, he added, because the building is located in the city’s historic district.
Patel expected construction to last three or four more months, ideally allowing the expanded store to open before Christmas. Traffic crossing the border from Maine was detoured around downtown on Aug. 22 and 23, but Patel did not expect the construction to cause significant traffic issues beyond that week.