Parking is a problem for downtown Meridian, according to city officials. Their solution is a new on-street parking plan. So far, the idea has been pitched to the city council and it's asking council members for recommendations.

Mayor John Robert Smith said the city must make room for downtown visitors.

"What we find is, if you're a retail establishment, you need for your shoppers to park in relative proximity to your business," Smith said.

The city proposes hiring on The McLaurin Parking Company of North Carolina to run the parking system, at a cost of $202,000 per year with an anticipated revenue of $231,000.

Parking enforcement officers would work the entire business day using hand held computers to enter each vehicle license tag. Then, the computer would catch those vehicles violating time-restricted parking and issue a wirelessly-printed citation on the spot. It would eliminate the current method of keeping track of cars by marking the tires with chalk.

Citations would increase from $6.00 to a proposed $16.00, while at the same time expanding time parking zones. By making more one hour and two hour parking spaces, the city hopes to promote more short term visitors to downtown Meridian.

The mayor said many downtown employees working and parking downtown receive hundreds of dollars in citations a year. He says the alternative would be for the employees to park in the downtown parking garage or another location.

Smith says, ultimately, the responsibility of employee parking is up to the employer.

The city council is expected to announce its decision at an upcoming meeting.

"They need to do something. I've run around this place several times trying to find a parking space," said Tommy Strickland, who was driving downtown Wednesday.

Officials with the Meridian Downtown Association say something needs to be done to open up spaces currently being used by employees so that customers can use them.

Right now, they say many employees stay parked in the same spot every day, rolling their tires every two hours to get the telling chalk marks off.

"If they have a parking space tied up all day long with their employees, it keeps customers from coming by," said Michele Pearson of the Meridian Downtown Association.

Pearson also says many businesses that might potentially consider moving downtown won't because of the lack of available parking.

But those increased fines for illegal parking have many of those already parking downtown nervous. They say $16.00 is just too much.

"That's just wrong, because some people have to stay in one place more than thirty minutes," said Rebecca Inabnit.