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The Scoop at City Hall |
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SOME VICTORIA BUSINESSES CONCERNED LOOKING AHEAD TO HWY 5 CONSTRUCTION IN 2012 Back in July, Victoria councilmembers voted 5-0 in support of expending city funds to research, advertise, and develop a marketing plan to assist businesses and the city with directing traffic to downtown Victoria during the Highway 5 construction period in 2012 and immediately following the construction period. The motion included councilmembers being able to get an idea of what kind of contributions would come from the businesses. On September 12th, four members of a subcommittee of the Victoria Business Development Committee attended the city council meeting that evening and presented a general marketing outline plan. Holly Kreft, Victoria Community Development Director, stated, “We will now be looking for comments on the plan from the business community. We’re expecting this will be a city partnership with them.” Holly introduced Dale Riley (owner of Fresh Seasons Market), Jim Crowley (chair of the Victoria Business Development Committee), Randy Miller (member of the BDC), and David Baston (chair of the subcommittee of the BDC). Stated Dale Riley, “We hope it helps. It certainly will help. There will be a significant loss regardless, but we need to do as much as we possibly can prior to, during, and after. It’s very disconcerting.” “We should educate people how easy it is to access downtown Victoria,” he said. “MnDOT has been very open to support of the community and receptive to concerns of the business community. It’s important to continue shopping here.” Stated David Baston, “We hope to develop a business marketable plan. You have a good outline in front of you. What we really need to focus on is under ‘Events.’ We as a business community are responsible for saving our own business. We need to design events to drive business into our businesses. We need to drive the activities into our businesses.” “Business have to get together to develop those programs to create some activity like sidewalk sales, couponing, or whatever it is,” he said. “We’ve got to give people a reason to come downtown. I really want to concentrate on events and activities.” “I am not a Victoria business owner,” continued Mr. Baston. “but I know that businesses have to get together and develop events and sales. We have to give people a reason to come downtown because people don’t like to fight the difficulties of construction activity. We have developed a proposed survey to survey all businesses in Victoria, to get their response and ideas and what kind of assistance they see themselves needing.” He added, “Some businesses say the construction will not affect their sales but just make sure they can get trucks in and out of here.” Said Jim Crowley, “This is not a one-time event, but something to continue in the future.” “It’s a partnership,” said Councilmember Tom O’Connor. “Together there is a potential huge synergy.” Councilmember Tim Amundsen stated, “A thriving community is more than just a municipality. I think we’d want to also partner with other municipalities. As crazy as this sounds, this could be lemonade.” It was stated that eventually there will be a cost analysis of what the marketing plan might cost the city and the businesses. At this point Mr. Baston paraphrased a line from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address and said it’s a comment he’d like to make to the business community: “Ask not what Victoria can do for you, but ask what you can do for yourself.” Then he added, “We want to really recognize that it’s the business owner that needs to pitch in on this and save their own business. We can only offer cover. We can’t do it for them.” Stated Mayor Mary Thun, “I’ve always thought that a number of businesses could advertise better.”
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November 2010 |
