After a little more than a year of heated debate, Camden Public Works will soon be removing the paid parking kiosks from streets downtown and storing them at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The Select Board voted 5-0 on Tuesday, Nov. 10 to take that action in response to the votes from townspeople in the November election on the non-binding questions about parking. The town will be retaining paid parking kiosks on the Public Landing.
Townspeople voted 2,583-845 to remove metered parking from the streets in a non-binding question Nov. 3. On the second question, they voted 1,976-1,423 to keep metered parking on the Public Landing.
The issue of parking has been a matter of fierce debate in the community for more than a year. The town kiosks were installed in September 2025 and most of them were immediately vandalized.
In June, Chris Nolan was reelected to the Select Board and Bobbi Oxton Blake was elected, giving those who oppose paid parking a majority on the Select Board. But when the vote came in July on whether to pause the parking program, Susan Dorr joined Blake and Nolan in approving the pause, while Ken Gross argued the issue should be decided by townspeople at the polls in November.
Dorr said at the Select Board meeting Tuesday night that she was an advocate of paid parking originally, but she was moved to change her position by a letter presented by Camden business owners speaking out against the paid parking program.
“They’re the folks keeping the lights on,” she said.
She added that she felt some of the rhetoric around the issue when petitions were being circulated in town opposing paid parking involved a lot of overblown and emotional reactions to the program.
Dorr said the rollout of the paid parking program was clumsy and confusing and could have been more elegant.
She also said it might be a good idea to recharge the town Parking Committee to look at the options for the future.
Acting Town Manager Jodi Hanson said the vote impacts 32 kiosks with 31 on the streets of Camden and one for demonstration purposes at the Town Office.
Select Board member Christopher Rheault said there was research that went into the paid parking program which outlined benefits that included addressing traffic issues as well as the issue of parking itself.
The issue was originally on the agenda as a discussion item, but the board voted to move it to an action item, in part because it would be good to have the Public Works Department remove the kiosks and store them before the weather gets too cold.
Rheault also argued the town should go ahead and sell the kiosks if possible to recoup some money, noting that even if the town decides to dust off the paid parking idea two years in the future, by then the technology will likely have moved on to something better. Hanson said she had reached out to Butts Ticket Systems, the company that sold the kiosks to Camden, and it was possible the company might buy back some of the main boards and screens. She said it may also be possible to sell them in the open marketplace.
The town also has in storage signs explaining the parking program, which for the most part were never put up.
Rheault said that if the parking committee is restarted it needs to have a more cohesive structure. He said the committee in the past has been more of an ad hoc situation with people showing up and voting rather than a formal process.
Chair Chris Nolan said the town traffic ordinance would need to be updated, but Rheault did not see that as a priority since the plan was basically to maintain the status quo.
“I’ll take a look at it,” Nolan said.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.