CAMDEN, Maine — In the end it was Camden Select Board member Susan Dorr who became the swing vote that suspended paid parking on Camden’s downtown streets for the remainder of the 2026 season.
The 3-2 vote came after another lengthy debate about the revenues that could be generated through the parking program and a lot of testimony from residents fed up with the program’s impact on summer business so far this season.
Dorr joined Chair Chris Nolan and Bobbi Oxton Blake in voting to suspend paid parking while Christopher Rheault and Ken Gross voted against the measure.
Nolan had placed the item on the agenda as promised after his attempt to bring the issue to a vote at the July 7 meeting met with strong resistance and claims of transparency issues from Rheault.
Lorie Costigan of Glendarragh Farm Lavender on Main Street said she was representing 24 business owners in town who wanted to see the paid parking program “shelved,” arguing the confusing parking system with its kiosks requiring a minimum of 30 minutes was costing businesses “grab-and-go” customers. She said baffled and frustrated customers often ended up simply driving away.
The 24 businesses included Camden Deli, the Leather Bench, Leonard’s, Stuart and Marianne Smith, Leslie Curtis Designs, Lee Montgomery of Camden Harbor Properties, Serendipity Fine Consignment, Mechanic Street Barber Shop, Jessica Ives art and Jonathan Ives massage, Mixed Greens, Naildiva, Lily, Lupine & Fern, Zoot Coffee, Lone Pine Real Estate, the Smoothie Shack, Camden Real Estate and Long Grain.
Jessica Ives also offered a key piece of testimony, arguing that the parking kiosks have been harvesting people’s personal information for companies involved in “corporate surveillance.” She criticized the town for choosing kiosks that require cards or cellphones rather than accepting cash and coin, arguing that “cash can’t be tracked.”
Dorr said Ives’ testimony gave her pause because she shares concerns about data being harvested.
Dorr also said she was heartbroken by the extent to which the community was being ripped apart by this issue. She said she was not going to oppose shelving parking in hopes of bringing an end to the bitter fighting over the issue.
Ken Gross, who has been opposed to paid parking, said it was a mistake for the town to implement this program without a vote of the people. He said he did not want this to be simply an action of the Select Board. Instead, he wanted to keep the paid parking program going for this season to recoup the costs of the kiosks and then have the townspeople vote on the issue in November.
Oxton Blake said she and Nolan had campaigned leading up to their June 9 election on ending paid parking and she felt they had a mandate to do so.
Rheault argued some of the figures Nolan used to argue for ending parking should have been provided to the Select Board prior to the meeting. In addition, he said the parking program had been developed over a long period not just to increase revenue to the town, but also to make sure more parking was available by keeping traffic moving through the town. Turning over parking spaces was one of the goals and he and others argued that aspect seemed to be working this season. He argued issues such as lack of needed signage could be improved over time.
Resident Geoff Scott argued that since the townspeople voted to include $150,000 in revenue from paid parking in the budget, the Select Board could not legally change that. Nolan said he would check with the town attorney on that Wednesday.
Jonathan Ives argued that since there is no signage explaining the rules of the paid parking in town, the money gathered should be refunded.
Questions were also raised about what will happen with the kiosks. It was noted they could be sold, but acting Town Manager Jodi Hanson pointed out that they have also been vandalized.
The swing vote pushed the change through. Dorr said at one point in the meeting, noting that she was tired of listening to the heated rhetoric, “This is not the hill I die on.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.