By Ed Shannon, staff writer

In 1946 the merchants of Albert Lea&8217;s central business district were contending with a challenging problem. Where could their customers park cars on streets with limited spaces?

As an attempt to solve this dilemma the Albert Lea City Council approved what seemed to be a practical solution. They authorized the installation of 87 parking meters on both sides of Broadway Avenue from College to Clark streets. The intention was to limit the time people parked their cars along the streets and hopefully provide a better turnover of customers for the stores and other local businesses and professional activities.

Albert Lea thus became the first city in the area to install meters. Within a few years other cities in south Minnesota installed meters as a way to solve their own parking problems.

The experience with the parking meters on Broadway was so satisfactory in securing more turnover that in the fall of 1947 an additional 144 meters were installed on Clark, William and Main streets between Newton and Washington avenues. By early 1948 even more parking meters were installed on Broadway Avenue to cover the area from the north end to East Pearl Street, both sides of Washington Avenue from Water to College streets, both sides of Newton Avenue from Clark to College streets, and Clark Street from St. Mary to Newton avenues.

For those folks who wanted to save their pennies and nickels, a free parking lot was provided by the city at the corner of St. Mary Avenue and West Main Street.

Another place fairly close to the central business district with free parking was based on Central Park. In the mid-1940s the four streets bordering Central Park were widened to permit diagonal or angle parking.

Some of the meters were set up for one-hour limits and others were of the two-hour type. The meters on both sides of Broadway Avenue had one-hour limits; all the others were of the two-hour type. The hours of usage were 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. (In that era this confirmed Friday as Albert Lea&8217;s

late shopping night.) Sunday was a free day with the meters.

An article in the March 1948 issue of Albert Lea&8217;s Community Magazine had these tips regarding the usage of the parking meters:

&8220;Albert Lea&8217;s meters are of the automatic type. To operate them it&8217;s only necessary to insert one or more pennies, or a nickel, in the slot which is on the left hand side of the meter as a person faces away from the street.

&8220;If the red expiration flag is showing, each penny inserted in the meter will give 12 minutes of parking time. A nickel will give 60 minutes in the one hour limit area, only five pennies or one nickel may be inserted. In the two hour limit areas, 10 pennies, or two nickels, or five pennies and one nickel, may be inserted. If a nickel and one to four pennies are to be inserted, the nickel should be put in first and then the pennies. (Dimes would not work in the meters.)

&8220;If the meter shows any unexpired time, the first penny inserted will cause the pointer to go only to the first multiple of 12. For example, if the pointer on the dial at the top of the meter indicates 5 minutes of time remaining, the first penny will register to only 12 minutes. If there are 15 minutes remaining, the first penny will give a total of only 24 minutes. Each additional penny, however, will give 12 minutes more.

&8220;Similarly, if any time remains on a meter in a two hour time limit area, the first nickel inserted will give a total of only 60 minutes. The second nickel will cause the meter to show two hours or 120 minutes.

&8220;It&8217;s true that the meters, like all things mechanical, will go out of order and occasionally you may lose a penny or a nickel. The Police Department endeavors to maintain a constant check on all of the meters to keep them in operating condition. It will be greatly appreciated if you would call the Police Department if you discover a meter to be out of order. Always look at the dial to see how much time you have after you have inserted your money. (Each meter in the city had its own number.)&8221;

To collect the money from the parking meters and to enforce their proper use, the Albert Lea Police Department hired several people to perform these duties. They were called &8220;meter maids.&8221; A more appropriate title for these city employees was parking enforcement officers.

The original intention for the payment of the overtime parking violations was to have those people go to the City Hall, then located on North Broadway Avenue. Before long, special boxes painted yellow were placed on parking meter posts at several locations around the city. Here, people with overtime parking tickets could place money to cover the fines in envelopes and insert them into those special boxes.

Albert Lea&8217;s parking meters were phased out and removed by 1977.

(For more information about the parking meter topic, see Ed Shannon&8217;s column in the March 28 issue.)