By Matt Flumerfelt
VALDOSTA — With the recent closing of Luna Ristorante in Valdosta’s downtown, shorter hours at Hildegard’s, and the temporary suspension of business at Glo Ultra-Lounge last week, Valdosta’s downtown has been unusually subdued lately. While it’s true that the nationwide economic slump is partly to blame for slower than average business, some of Valdosta’s downtown business owners, employees, and patrons are asking whether the local government and other agencies should be doing more to promote the downtown district.
Some of the governing entities and agencies responsible for promoting economic activity in Valdosta and Lowndes County are the city and county governments, the Central Valdosta Development Authority (CVDA) and Main Street Office, the Valdosta - Lowndes County Industrial Authority, the Valdosta - Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, and the Valdosta Lowndes County Conference Center & Tourism Authority, among others. Knowing which entity is responsible for what activity can be confusing.
Rachel Thrasher, a longtime employee of City Market at 101 N. Patterson St., said that Thomasville does a much better job of promoting their downtown district than Valdosta.
“If you look at downtown Thomasville,” Thrasher said, “their Main Street Office is constantly and consistently promoting their downtown businesses.”
Thrasher said Thomasville’s Main Street Director, Karen Smith, is a familiar face to all Thomasville’s downtown merchants, visiting their shops and restaurants, providing information, assisting with advertising, and looking for ways to
improve traffic to their businesses. Valdosta’s Main Street Director position is currently vacant.
During lean economic times, business owners have even less time than usual to attend meetings or brainstorm ways to grow their business.
“It’s hard to get the merchants to come to the various board and other meetings because they’re busy struggling to hang on,” said Joanne Griner, a member of the CVDA Board. “They don’t always have the freedom to leave their business to attend a 2 p.m. meeting.”
The same problem besets the members of city and county government and the various agencies.
“These are volunteer boards,” said Pat Sullivan, owner of the downtown business ClientTell. “These people have busy lives. They’re doing a lot of things. They’re conducting business, and have a home life, and volunteering their time to these boards, which I think is a wonderful thing. But what happens I think is that sometimes you probably don’t put as much thought into it as a downtown merchant would or myself, who’s thinking, how can we get these boards to talk to each other? How can we bridge this communication gap? And that’s understandable. When your plate is full, you tend to focus on what you’ve got to get taken care of.”
Sometimes, the perception that a problem exists, or doesn’t exist, is created when word about what’s being done isn’t reaching those concerned. Albert Slone, downtown business owner and co-owner of ASA Engineering & Surveying Inc., said he recently attended a meeting of the CVDA at which Valdosta Mayor John Fretti presented some initiatives about rerouting truck traffic around the downtown district to cut down on noise and traffic, and about the Gateway study and implementation plan to beautify the approaches to Valdosta to help attract tourism and business.
When he heard what Fretti was doing, Slone said he thought, “He’s dreaming the same dream we are.” The Downtown Valdosta Business Association (DVBA) is always on the agenda of the CVDA, but until recently, representatives of the downtown merchants didn’t attend. One reason for the absence is that there was no central authority to send the notice to about the meetings, Griner said.
Many problems that occurred in the past have been resolved over time, but still leave a lasting impression in the minds of those involved. One example of a problem that occurred as a result of miscommunication was when Walter Byrd of Hahira was trying to get licensed to give horse and buggy rides downtown as part of the First Fridays event.
Byrd had been licensed to give horse and buggy rides in other cities, and knew what he needed to do, but Valdosta’s Main Street Office muddled matters by telling him he needed to get licensed through Valdosta’s police department. Through the intervention of Valdosta police commander Brian Childress, it was successfully resolved, but not without a lot of extra effort.
“It was kind of an ordeal,” Byrd said, “but we got it worked out. That’s typical of city hall and bureaucracies everywhere. They want you to really do something, then they find a reason why you can’t,” he said.
Byrd said it seems to him that the downtown merchants and the activity they support will dry up if something isn’t done. Byrd specifically referred to the First Friday’s event, which he said was going great until the city changed the rules about being able to walk around outside the businesses with drinks while socializing. When the rules changed forbidding alcohol outside the restaurants and other businesses, Byrd said, “It seemed like some of the joy went out of it.” He blames the changes on a few people who “acted like idiots,” and said the one’s creating the problem should have been handled by the police, instead of punishing everybody by changing the rules.
Alison Wilson, Main Street Coordinator with Thomasville’s Main Street Office said, “What we see with a lot of the downtown businesses is that they appreciate the information we provide. They stay in the store from the time it opens until it closes, so we act as a liaison, keeping them up to date on city projects, events, and any meetings that are going on.”
Thomasville’s Main Street Director, Karen Smith, was out of town and so couldn’t be interviewed this week, but Wilson said Smith is also the director over tourism, which has helped them a lot community wide. An auditorium with the capacity to seat 1000 people occupies the second floor of their downtown office, and Wilson said they have two or three events every month at which tickets are sold. They are currently hosting some bluegrass shows by the Chuck Wagon Gang. People attending such shows often patronize downtown restaurants before or after the shows, she said.
Wilson said there are three of them working in Thomasville’s Main Street Office. They meet with the downtown merchants committee at least once a week, and provide free advertising, among other things. They also use the Big Oak to attract more business. The Big Oak has a camera mounted on it, she said, and people can call a number posted there to take a picture of themselves under the Big Oak and upload it to their cell phone, or create a postcard using a Web site.
In Valdosta, Main Street Coordinator Ellen Hill, with the help of an assistant, has assumed the duties of the Main Street Director until the position can be filled. Assistant City Manager Mara Register said they are in the process of hiring a Main Street Director and plan to include members of the DVBA on the selection committee.
Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson said, “Obviously the city feels some frustration. But we are always here, ready, willing and able to work with those who give us a chance. Everybody has got to come together.”
Sullivan, who has taken the lead in organizing Valdosta’s DVBA said, “We all have a common goal. Whatever board’s we need to be a part of, we’re going to start going to those meetings. We’re going to show them that we’re willing to step up. It takes a whole community to make things work. We need to be talking to each other.”
