The issue of parking in front of businesses along Main Street in Noble was discussed at a recent city council meeting. A merchant who has property along Main Street was concerned about the use of the angled parking frontage between Chestnut and Cherry streets, fearing area employees who parked there were taking up parking opportunities for customers. Wade said the chief of police talked to the majority of the business owners in that block and the overwhelming consensus was opposition to placing time restrictions on the area at this time.

"The city has total authority on those parking areas and right now they are available to anybody: employees, customers, anybody," said Bob Wade, Noble City Manager. "The only restriction we have on them currently is that people cannot park there more than 24 hours at a time."

Wade said the Chief of Police talked to the majority of the business owners in that block and the overwhelming consensus was opposition to placing time restrictions on the area at this time.

Jim Wolf of Wolf Laser, Inc. who owns a business at 102 S. Main, said that it was his understanding that someone "asked the city to impose a two-hour parking limit" along Main Street. Although such a restriction would prevent employees from parking in front of businesses all day, it would also impact shoppers. "Personally, I think it would be a horribly unfriendly thing to do," Wolf said. Wolf's view is that the goal of business people is to want people to park in front of their stores. "We want them to eat lunch, buy some stuff from me or maybe get something fixed, get a haircut from Amanda next door, and then maybe go on down and check out some insurance. I want them to stay here and shop all day. We want it to be a cozy place for people to come and shop."

Angela Wood, manager at Quick Cash Advance located at 128 S. Main said, "Some of the people who work here--up and down--do park and stay all day and that eliminates the parking for everybody else. I think we should save the [storefront] parking spaces for the customers."

As an employee, she tends to park elsewhere "out of the way" to provide customers access to the buildings. However, if the city were to impose a two-hour parking restriction, it would be fine with her.

Wood thinks one solution to the parking issue might be for the city to put in some parking lots nearby for use by employees and customers.

Tom Thomas at Farmer's Insurance at 115 Main said he hasn't had any trouble with people parking all day in the angled parking. In fact, during inclement weather, he's been known to be one of them.

"Generally, at the most, we have one to two [customers] coming in at a time. So long as they can get in and back out [it's not a problem]," Thomas said. "I see the streets all the time and there's always parking available."

Thomas thinks "any time you charge [for a parking meter], it's unfriendly. We're not a big enough community, and we don't do enough retail to justify [restrictions]."

Thomas admitted that if he had to circle the block three or four times to find a place to park, he might be worried, but he said, "I leave and go daily and there's always a parking spot there. It might not be the exact one I had, but there's always one available."

Thomas thinks it makes more sense to relocate the recycle bins in the next block south. Not only would moving the bins allow for more parking, it would eliminate the traffic hazard of not being able to see around them when trying to turn onto and off of Main Street.

With tax revenues down in Noble, those shopping dollars become very important. In order to have tax dollars come in, people have to come and spend money.

"I think the City and the Chamber of Commerce, the business people, residents and everybody all together ought to be thinking all along the same lines. We want people to come here," Wolf said. "We need to stay friendly and welcome everybody to come and stay all day and spend all their money."

Wade stated that the council is aware that in the future it might be necessary to impose a time limit on parking, but right now, since most of the business owners don't want time-restricted parking, the council is looking at other alternatives.

"We're going to try to handle this on a volunteer basis and solve the problem in the short term," Wade said. "We're going to talk to business that we think are using it [storefront parking] for employee parking and encourage them to have their employees park a little farther away."

Wade stated that there are additional angled parking spaces in the block directly south of the block in question. These spaces are in disrepair, but the council has recommended the relocation of recycling bins currently situated there. The area can then be cleaned up and the parking spaces re-striped making it available for additional parking.

This area is "very close to where they're needing the spaces," Wade said. "We think that'll work."

Employees at Noble Pharmacy, the establishment directly north of the recycling bins and proposed new parking, were unavailable to comment.