Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406020053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Some of its key supporters say a cut in the town's financial support of the program could reverse the trend of the past year, which has seen formerly vacant downtown buildings filled with new small businesses that increased jobs and the tax base.
But the town also could go in the direction of hiring a full-time public relations director who would continue some of the business recruitment activities of Roscoe Cox, who resigned as director of the Main Street program at the start of the year after an unprecedented success in rebuilding it.
The question then becomes whether such an employee would answer to the Main Street board or the town.
All of these matters are likely to be settled before the end of the month, when the town approves a 1994-95 budget that may continue funding Main Street as in the past, create a new public relations position which has proved successful in Wytheville, or go in a different direction.
The Main Street board is asking the town for $68,448, which is less than the $87,000 it ended up getting during 1993-94 counting supplemental appropriations.
Renaissance Restaurant owner Paul Etzel said the program will be able to live with less because its board will be accounting more strictly for advertising and other expenses in the coming year. Cox's success in opening new stores is undeniable, but he was also impatient with bureaucracy and demanded a free hand in commiting program funds where and when he felt it necessary without awaiting board approval.
That was why Etzel, Debbie Jonas and Karen Graham - members of Main Street's recently formed Finance Committee - want their board to have review authority over the spending of any future executive director, even if the director is also a town public relations director.
Councilman Nick Glenn, at a budget workshop Monday, noted that the town is considering a new public relations position and wondered if that person would not be doing some of the business recruiting and other work of a Main Street director. Councilman Roy D'Ardenne questioned how much review authority Main Street should have if the town ends up paying for the position.
``I'd like to see the county get in on this,'' Glenn said, adding that such a director should go beyond recruiting business for downtown Pulaski alone. For example, he said, ``They should help the developers out at the Wal-Mart center because they've got six or eight vacancies.''
Graham, owner of the Somethin' Fishy Pet Store, agreed and said the Main Street program has already become the promotions agency ``not only for downtown Pulaski but for the county.''
When advertising by downtown businesses brings people into Pulaski, she said, they also buy gas and food and more at outlying businesses as well. ``We really do feel that we are not just doing this for Main Street. We are your publicity people.''
Billboards advertising Pulaski have brought many travelers to town, various merchants said they found from talking to customers. ``Those billboards don't just benefit Main Street but the whole town of Pulaski,'' Etzel said.
He said the proposed budget also calls for more local advertising, along with the regional. ``We don't think we've done enough to encourage our own citizens to come to downtown Pulaski,'' he said.
Mayor Gary Hancock - a supporter of the program - asked the Main Street delegation what it felt would happen if the town reduces its financial support.
``It would kill us. And there wouldn't be another chance, I'm afraid,'' Colony of Virginia owner Debbie Jonas said of letting the momentum slack off. ``I don't see that, if we let this opportunity go by, it is ever going to happen again ... Advertising is the key to our success.''
She pointed out that other localities are putting far more into building and promoting their downtowns. She said Staunton annually budgets $325,000 for its downtown; Luray, $275,000; Lexington, more than $250,000, and Abingdon, $1.3 million.
D'Ardenne noted that the budget shows the merchants themselves putting only $6,500 into the budget. Members of the delegation said that was over and above other advertising initiatives, including joint ads funded by different groups of stores.
Jonas said she has spent more than $5,000 on advertising since her store opened 11 months ago. Flo Stevenson said she had spent about $4,000 marketing the Count Pulaski Bed & Breakfast in its six months. ``This benefits Pulaski,'' she said, and is all beyond what merchants put into the Main Street budget.
About half of the proposed Main Street budget would be for an executive director. Councilman and Mayor-elect Andy Graham asked if the director could be hired for less than a 40-hour week.
``Only if he works like Roscoe. Only if he gets paid for 20 and works 60,'' businessman Alex Rygas said.
by CNB