People who want to park on downtown Fort Dodge streets can keep their change in their pockets through the holiday season.

Plastic bags have been placed on the meters, and no one has to stuff coins into them through Jan. 1.

While no one has to feed the meters for awhile, a two-hour time limit is in place for on-street parking.

Taking the parking meters out of service temporarily was proposed by Main Street Fort Dodge as a way to make the downtown area more inviting for anyone who wants to shop or dine there.

”The goal is just to have more people come downtown,” said Kris Patrick, the executive director of Main Street Fort Dodge.” Within two hours, you can have a great lunch or a great meeting with friends or get a lot of shopping in.”

The Messenger partnered with Main Street Fort Dodge on the project by paying for the bags covering the meters.

”This was a chance for us to help out and partner with Main Street to provide that free parking for the downtown area,” said Cory Bargfrede, the advertising director for The Messenger.

Main Street Fort Dodge will give the city government up to $2,000 to make up for the revenue it would have received from the meters.

Now that the meters are encased in plastic bags and out of action for awhile, there’s no parking related excuse for not coming to downtown Fort Dodge. We encourage everyone to shop in the downtown stores and eat in the downtown restaurants throughout the holiday season.