How Manchester's Refurbished Meters Work

Denise Boutilier is the Parking Manager for the City of Manchester. It's been three weeks since the city started collecting spare change at six specially designated "old-school" parking meters, and the charitable donations are adding up.

"We did our first collection after two weeks and donated about $100 to New Horizons. We'll be emptying the meters again next Thursday," said Boutilier.

She was responding to an inquiry prompted by a Nashua Patch reader, who wanted to know if Nashua might follow suit, once the Main Street coin meters are replaces over the next few weeks with the new "pay and display" meters, which take credit cards.

Boutilier said the meters were installed at no cost to Manchester.

"The cost, which was about $300, was donated by an attorney in the city," Boutilier said. They were made available to New Horizons for New Hampshire, a homeless shelter, soup kitchen and food pantry.

"New Horizons had them painted and then the city Public Works department installed the meter pipes. They were modified so that any coin, even pennies, would drop down into the collection canisters. Every two weeks, a member of our staff will collect the canisters, count the money, and send a breakdown to our Board of Aldermen and to New Horizons. Then, the money is delivered," Boutilier said.

She believes that as more people become aware of the meters, the donations will increase.

"The idea started because we were having iissues with people panhandling. What we wanted was a way for people to be able to say to anyone asking for spare change that they had donated to the meters, and that the money would be going to the shelter, which helps with our homeless population," Boutilier said.

The idea was a hit via our Facebook page when we posted the original story. Below are some of the comments when we asked if you thought this was a good idea for Nashua to look into. Feel free to add your comments in below:

• Lori Lerude very cool idea....how about auctioning off the rights to decorate them?....remember the cows in Boston (http://boston.cowparade.com/)? Nashua has lots of creative people...put a little plaque on the meter that has the sponsor's name...CowParade Boston Boston - The Official Site boston.cowparade.comVisit www.cowparade.com, the official site of CowParade, for the latest news and information about CowParade Boston
• Jenn Morton How do we get this done? Write the mayor? Petition public works? Let's make it happen!
• Maribeth Saum McCarthy One city I lived in auctioned off the meters for charity. Could be a neat little memento in a "man cave".
• Jenn Fenton This would be a great project for Positive Street Arthref="https://www.facebook.com/jfinethy" rel="nofollow">Jennifer Finethy Yes, I think that's a great idea! I'd be much more likely to put change in that meter than roll down my window at a stop light..
• Michelle Partridge-Oro Yes love it
• Judy Blachek It's a great idea!
• Jeanne Leduc I love the idea!
• Sandy Conley What a cool idea! And if there are surplus in storage just sitting there, why not sell or donate them to organizations that could put them up in stores, at events, etc?
• Carryl Hauser Roy Yes! I love this!
• Rita Grugnale yes
• Teri Fenton YES!!!!
• Lauren Hir Bowe That's not a bad idea, you see change on the ground everywhere, so why not put it in a machine for charities:)
• Brenda Brackmann I like this!