Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993 TAG: 9312160262
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Participating merchants will start selling $1 tickets next month. The winner will be drawn at a Valentine's Day gathering Feb. 14 on the Old Courthouse lawn.
The venture is aimed at raising money for the Alliance to help promote the downtown shopping area.
``We may fall flat on our face. It may be great,'' said Anne Wallace, who is heading the Alliance Promotions Committee. The project will serve as a trial run to see how store customers like it.
Merchants who offer the tickets in their stores will pay a $10 fee to the Alliance, to help toward expenses. Robin Poteet, with Poteet and Co. Advertising in Snowville, is heading the Advertising Committee which will work on a budget to publicize the shopping spree.
An earlier downtown activity will come Saturday with a day full of music on the courthouse lawn.
Young singers from the Pulaski County Melodies and Riverlawn Elementary School will perform from 11 a.m. to noon. Their appearance had been scheduled for last weekend but was postponed because of the cold weather.
They will be followed by guitarist Jack Jackson, and the Pulaski County High School Choir will perform at 2 p.m. Santa Claus will put in an appearance on Main Street starting about 11 a.m.
``The biggest thing about Pulaski is that you people are in the catbird seat as far as antiques, art and music art concerned,'' Pulaski Main Street Director Roscoe Cox told the business people attending the Alliance meeting at the Renaissance Restaurant.
Cox said it is time for the Alliance to take over the responsibility of advertising for New River Valley customers.
``It is my opinion that you people should now handle that yourselves,'' he said. ``I think it is going to be the downtown Alliance or the individual shops.''
The Main Street program will continue to handle the national advertising, Cox said.
Cox said it normally takes three to five years for a community to capitalize on a major advertising campaign, and that Pulaski had been pushing its arts, antiques and music emphasis for only a year.
``We've done a lot of things quickly, folks, in Pulaski,'' he said.
``We're going to lose some stores. ... We're going to have some shake-outs,'' Cox said. ``But through all of you working together as a team, you all can build this thing that you have started.''
He said Pulaski has a lot going for it. ``Did you know that Pulaski is the only town in Southwest Virginia that has 99 buildings listed on the historic register?'' he asked.
``If one merchant in this room falls by the wayside, it's a reflection on all of us. We need to help each other,'' he told the group.
by CNB