Butler City Council has finally made the right decision in voting to bring back parking meters to Main Street.

Not only will the meters help the city's anemic financial coffers, but will return a sense of honesty to the business district parking situation. The parking spaces, which are in place to benefit the city's stores and service businesses by providing convenient parking for shoppers and those in town for the various services available, should not be routinely "gobbled up" - as they are now - by store employees, business owners and others who work downtown but do not patronize the businesses.

Certainly there might be some initial grumbing by shoppers and others in town for whatever reason, but in the long run people will adjust to the pay-to-park-on-Main Street situation. Those who envision parking meters as the instrument to put the business district at death's door are overreacting.

They should instead direct their efforts at finding exciting and innovative ways to entice shoppers and others to come to the downtown.

While elimination of Main Street parking would be the ultimate solution to the downtown's traffic woes, this way of achieving the most benefit from allowing the parking spaces to remain is the second-best option.

The idea of allowing 15 minutes to a half-hour of free parking with a twist of the meter knob prior to the insertion of coins is an excellent idea. But the meter plan should not provide for meters that can be "slugged" for eight hours of parking in one visit to the meter. The time available on the meters should probably be only two hours at the most, and the amount to be paid for each quarter-hour or half-hour of time should be realistic in terms of today's prices, especially in comparison with other paid parking in the city.

Now that the meters have been approved - by a 3-2 vote after two similar attempts in recent years failed - the vote should have been 5-0 - attention should focus on a timetable for installation of what could be approximately 90 meters from Brady Street south on Main Street.

Main Street meters were removed in the 1980s at the request of Main Street business owners who said they were a hindrance to attracting customers when area malls offered free parking. However, some of the services offered on Main Street aren't available at the malls, and downtown stores can attract customers by beefing up their personalized service and by being more aggressive in terms of sales, including how they advertise them and the inventory on hand.

Attractions such as "old-fashioned bargain days" are successful for many communities and can be successful here. Likewise, the business community should try to provide Christmas attractions beyond the traditional city decorations - just like the business community could bring people downtown if they decorated the business district with Halloween "scarecrows" prepared by businesses, clubs and service organizations, with prize ribbons and bragging rights awarded to the best displays.

Simply being upset about the return of meters isn't going to accomplish a thing.

The city is experiencing many positive changes. The downtown parking situation shouldn't be exempt from changes geared toward meeting current needs.

Parking wasn't the bogeyman that brought challenges to this and other downtowns when strip shopping centers and malls came on the scene. It was the conveniences offered by being able to shop numerous stores under one roof, or via a short walk.

But some downtowns have not succumbed to those challenges and are hellbent on remaining alive despite the formidable competition.

That should be the intent of downtown Butler as it looks ahead to stepped-up revitalization initiatives.