In the search for more parking spaces, the town of Damariscotta found a likely landing place.

Unfortunately, it is already occupied — by a Dumpster.

The town met with the co-owners of the Damariscotta River Grill on Wednesday, Oct. 7, to discuss a Dumpster that is on town property in the municipal parking lot.

The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen and the Damariscotta River Grill began hammering out an agreement that would allow the restaurant, which is located on Main Street, to continue using a parking space to store a dumpster. In exchange, the restaurant would give one of its parking spots to the town.

Currently, the River Grill uses the buffer between the restaurant and the municipal parking lot for cardboard recycling, but co-owners Rick Hirsch and Jean Kerrigan said the space wouldn't accommodate a Dumpster.

“We're asking the town to allow us to have our Dumpster remain on the corner,” Kirsch said. “It's placement is vital (to the restaurant) for us to be able to get rid of our trash and there is nowhere else we could put a Dumpster.”

Hirsch said the Dumpster was there when the Damariscotta River Grill opened 15 years ago, and was likely there well before then.

The Dumpster, where it currently sits, takes up at least one spot and maybe two, Town Manager Matt Lutkus said. With parking spaces in the downtown area at a premium, freeing up the two spots would be a boon for motorists, Lutkus said.

“(The space with the Dumpster) has been town-owned for as long as the parking lot has been there,” he said.

Lutkus said as the town begins moving forward with its plans to overhaul the municipal parking lot, one of the priorities was finding more parking spots in the downtown area. One way to do so would be to possibly purchase surrounding pieces of property, while other ideas have included converting the spots reserved for police vehicles into public spots.

Another way to increase parking would be to respray the lines and reclaim several spots, such as the Damariscotta River Grill's Dumpster location.

Hirsch said he was willing to work with the town to resolve the issue.

“We're also very concerned about the parking issues and we would be happy to locate the Dumpster (to take up less room),” he said. “We could even look at having a smaller Dumpster and having it emptied twice a week,” he said.

Hirsch and Kerrigan said most other solutions, such as buying a pickup truck to haul away the restaurant's trash in a pickup truck, wouldn't be viable.

“We've been diligent in trying to create less trash, but there is no way for us to keep doing it without a Dumpster,” Kerrigan said.

Selectman Joshua Pinkham said that such a public-private agreement worried him, as other other businesses outside of the downtown area might ask the town for help with garbage removal.

Selectman Jim Cosgrove said the town should be looking for any opportunity to help an established business like the Damariscotta River Grill.

“This is a wonderful place to live, but it is a hard place to make a living,” he said. “I think we should support our local businesses. If this was a new case, that may be a different story. But I would like to see us tread lightly here.”

Cosgrove echoed Hirsch and said that the spot has almost always had a Dumpster on it, and that finding garbage removal in the downtown is a tough task.

“It's always been used as a place for a Dumpster, and when I look at it, I don't see two spaces, I see one,” he said. “It might be two if you're parking two Priuses there, but I don't think anyone can say 'We're missing those two spaces.'”

The parking lot will be the subject of several meetings in the coming weeks. On Oct. 21, the town will meet with the Twin Villages Alliance to discuss funding for the lot's ongoing reconstruction.

Specifically, the two sides will again broach the subject of pay-for-parking. When the proposal to turn the municipal lot into a paid lot in 2013, several business owners spoke out against the proposal. But with costs expected to go from $1 million for reconstruction and flood deterrence up to $2 million for a deluxe lot, the issue was brought up again in 2015.

Earlier in the year, the town brought in an official from Cale, which supplies municipalities with parking kiosks, although nothing has been decided yet.