A plan to remove the parking meters from downtown streets will be considered by the Fort Dodge City Council tonight.

The proposal calls for pulling out the meters, and then allowing people to park in those on-street spots for free for up to two hours.

People can actually park in those spots now for up to two hours for free thanks to a COVID-19 stimulus package approved by the council last year. That package also made parking in all downtown lots free.

The council will begin its work at 5 p.m. with a workshop discussion on the proposed downtown parking plan. The council’s regular business meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

The workshop and the meeting will be held in the Municipal Building, 819 First Ave. S.

In 2011, parking meters were installed along Central Avenue between Seventh and 10th streets. They were also installed on Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and 10th streets for one block north and south of Central Avenue.

That installation was once considered the first step to placing meters throughout the downtown, but the council never moved forward with placing additional meters.

Revenue from the meters paid for repairing downtown parking lots. The proposal before the council would take $25,000 annually from Main Street Fort Dodge to pay for parking lot reconstruction and repair.

The proposal would impose the two-hour limit on weekends as well as weekdays.

It would also ban parking on downtown streets between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Also on Monday, the council will consider awarding a contract to place artificial turf on the baseball diamond at Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex.

Mid America Golf and Landscape Inc., of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, submitted the apparent low bid of about $1.4 million.