Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995 TAG: 9506140066
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The organization of downtown merchants passed the motion without dissent at its meeting Tuesday morning.
Councilwoman Alma Holston had asked the Alliance to discuss the matter and make a recommendation that she could take back to Pulaski Town Council.
During a recent Saturday when Holston was working as a volunteer at the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley on Main Street, she said she got a lot of complaints about the number of people whose cars were ticketed.
Paul Etzel, owner of the Renaissance Restaurant on Main, recalled how the Alliance had asked the Police Department to enforce the two-hour limit at previous meetings.
"We all got on their case and said 'You've got to enforce the law' and that's what they're doing," he said.
Parking has been a problem downtown since so many new stores have opened along Pulaski's Main Street in the past few years. It is aggravated by the fact that some store employees park on the street all day, taking space which could otherwise be used by shoppers.
On Saturdays, however, with the Old Courthouse, banks and other weekday businesses closed, parking has not been a problem and there is plenty of space for potential store customers.
The Alliance is not asking the town to change the two-hour parking limit, because the time may come when the street is crowded on Saturdays as well. For now, it is asking that the parking limit not be enforced on Saturdays.
In other business, the Alliance voted to sponsor the second annual rubber duck race in Peak Creek during the Depot Day Festival June 24.
Participating merchants sell numbered rubber ducks to customers for $1 each. The ducks are to be brought to a starting point on the creek at 3 p.m. and placed in the water. The owners of the first three to cross a "finish line" at the Washington Street Bridge will collect prizes of $150, $75 and $50.
Alliance members also talked about ways to increase participation in the Fred Goad Memorial Family Market, held each Saturday morning on the Pulaski County Administration Building parking lot. Goad organized the market shortly before his death, and it has been under way since May 13. The cost of a sales space is $5 per day.
But it is early in the season for farm produce to be offered, and only a few vendors have taken advantage of the market.
"If we want this thing to go, we've got to help. We can't sit back and wait," said Marlis Ryssel-Flynn, who owns the Upstairs/Downstairs store on Main Street. She suggested recruiting people who regularly have yard sales to offer their goods at the downtown market, especially June 24 when the Depot Day Festival will guarantee crowds of potential buyers being downtown.
"It's like anything else. If it happens regularly, it'll catch on," said Pat Gooch of the Casimir Company store on Main.
The Alliance also agreed to sponsor a sidewalk sale June 24 during Depot Day for as many downtown merchants as want to participate.
by CNB