Got a Parking Ticket Downtown? You Might Not Have to Pay It.

Many people don't know this, but if you were shopping or eating at a business downtown and return to find a parking ticket on your car's windshield because you exceeded the designated two-hour limit, you don't have to pay it.  

Instead, take the ticket to the Downtown Manchester Special Services District's office at 983 Main St. and the $10 parking ticket will be waived for you (this does not apply to any tickets for parking illegally or in undesignated spaces). 

"That's been in place for all 13 years I've been here," Downtown Manager Tana Parseliti told Patch Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013. 

When asked what the point of having a two-hour parking limit downtown was if it could be so easily circumvented, Parseliti said the intent was to keep those spaces available for customers who would shop at and utilize the downtown businesses. She said the program was an effort to prevent employees or residents in the downtown area from occupying those same spaces all day long. 

"That's human nature. People will take the easiest course and not think it all the way through," Parseliti said. "We want customers to feel comfortable coming down here and parking for as long as they wish in legal parking spaces." 

Parseliti said she did not know if the program was underutilized or under advertised, but that the Downtown Manchester Special Services District typical issues only three or four waivers a month. Some businesses in the downtown area also advertise the program through a sticker somewhere on their store window. 

Parseliti said you could also bring the ticket back to the downtown business that you frequented and they would pass it along to her office for the waiver. 

"That limit is really intended to regulate the parking along the street so there's turnover of spaces," she said.