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The Summer Season is upon us! The Town of Berlin has kicked off our wildly successful Farmer’s Market in May, and despite a rainy start, everyone is enjoying the new vendors, live music, adorable petting zoo, and the fun fact that the market now continues through October.
With the summer months come an increase in visitors to the Town of Berlin; this is the time of year when our businesses rely on that traffic for commerce to succeed. However, with increased financial activity comes the kind of traffic that everyone gets frustrated with: more cars. This is a good time to remind the citizens of Berlin that we don’t really have a parking problem so much as we have a walking problem. If you’re willing to walk a little bit further to Main Street, you should have no problem finding a spot when you need it.
The Town recently entered into a lease agreement to convert a field on West and Washington Streets into a parking lot with minimum environmental impact. The Town was successful in presenting these plans to the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Planning Commission, and is now moving ahead to prepare the lot for use this summer. Thank you to Councilmembers Green and Knerr for their assistance with this project and their service on the Town’s Parking Sub-Committee.
Berlin is fortunate to have access to free parking lots throughout the business district that can help visitors and residents enjoy everything Berlin has to offer when arriving here by car. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is where employees of businesses in town are encouraged to park during the week; on Sunday mornings, please reserve those spots for church-goers and utilize Stephen Decatur Park for staff parking – this will make it easier for farmer’s market folks to join us. Parking Lots at Town Hall and Blacksmith, the USPS on Broad Street, and the Taylor Bank Lot beside Sterling Tavern and World of Toys are all offered with free access and should be prioritized by business owners for use by customers and visitors.
Last summer, our interns created a project to incentivize the businesses in town to have their employees park off Main Street and specifically utilize the St Paul’s Church lot. Business owners and shift workers are often parked for long stretches of time, so if you can see fit to leave the spots on Main Street and the more conveniently located parking lots throughout town for our visitors, especially those with limited mobility, everyone will benefit – leave yourself a few extra minutes to get to work and relish the time you get to spend walking through America’s Coolest Small Town.
Thank You!
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