PORT TOWNSEND — Merchants believe improved lighting and extended hours are priorities for increasing sales traffic in the downtown area, according to results of an informal poll taken Thursday.
“There is no lighting on this end of town, and we had no Christmas lights last year,” said Lois Venarchick, owner of Wynwoods Gallery & Bead Studio at 940 Water St.
“We are the entry point to town, and instead of a warm greeting to visitors, it looks like a white trash area.”
About 30 merchants met at the Main Street Merchant Breakfast at Pippa’s Real Tea, 636 Water St.
Participants discussed a list of 11 priorities. They used colored dots to rate each in importance: green for top priority, yellow for second-most-important and red for third.
‘Cream of crop’
Better lighting and extended shopping hours were the top choices among merchants.
The priority receiving the most yellow dots was increasing participation with Centrum and re-establishing free lunchtime concerts to encourage people to come downtown.
Increased training in social media was the third-most-popular priority.
“This is the cream of the crop, so I’m not surprised that all the topics got at least one dot,” said Heather Dudley Nollette, Main Street president.
“It surprises me that extended hours is such a high priority,” she said.
“We know that customers and visitors have asked for that, but it’s interesting that the merchants are willing to commit to this because it’s a challenge for them.”
Nollette said some of the priorities already have been assigned to committees who are studying them and determining a plan as to how they can be accomplished.
“We have to decide whether we assign the others to committees or put them on a list that will go into our strategic plan for next year,” she said.
“We need to decide what we can do with our current budget and what needs to be funded.”
Other priorities
Other priorities that received varying support from the merchants were:
■ Coordinate a holiday lighting ceremony and parade in connection with other communities, such as Port Ludlow.
■ Encourage people who visit downtown stores to shop in the uptown district.
■ Create a map of businesses that includes coupons and a walking tour.
■ Create window display contests that tie in with event themes.
■ Create a nighttime activity guide that can be distributed to local hotels.
■ Train merchants to develop a strategy to deal with shoplifting.
Nolette said all of those on the list were important, no matter how many dots they received.
“These are all the cream of the crop. They are on the list because people care about them,” she said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
