Posted by: thepinetree on 08/30/2010 12:24 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 08/30/2010 12:25 AM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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Angels Camp Business Association Weighs in on Visitors Center ~By Bob Menary
Angels Camp, CA...Dear Mayor Lynch and Council Members: I am writing on behalf of the Angels Camp Business Association Board of Directors and our eighty member businesses to urge the City Council to do everything in its power to keep the Calaveras Visitors Bureau’s Visitors Center in historic downtown Angels Camp. The Visitors Center serves as a magnet for visitors and residents alike. It attracts visitors to the county to stop at the rest area and to visit the Center’s shop. It expects nearly 13,000 visitors in the Center this year alone. Many of those visitors then take the time to walk up and down Main Street to shop, dine, view the historic buildings and read the Jumping Frog plaques. We believe that without the Center and its services, most of those visitors will not come into Angels Camp, much less stop to shop and dine...
The Visitors Center provides another vital service to retailers on Main Street -- clean, safe and handicapped-accessible restrooms. Most shops do not have their own facilities for shoppers and rely heavily on the Visitors Center.
The Visitors Center is one of the few retail outlets open seven days a week in the downtown area and thus provides a major service to visitors, directing them to other areas of town and other dining and entertainment outlets.
The Visitors Center serves as a gathering spot for local residents as well – for the restrooms, for resting and visiting on the porch, and as a full-time source of local information and local gifts.
Our businesses all along Main Street have been severely affected by the loss of traffic due to the opening of the Highway 4 Bypass last year, and by the recession. Many of our store fronts are empty. Landlords are suffering. We need travelers to stop, get out of their cars and walk around before they can spend any money in our town. The Visitors Center encourages them to stop and its staff encourages people to enjoy Angels Camp while they’re here. Closing the Visitors Center and moving it to another town will only exacerbate our problems. Unfortunately, this issue comes just as our business owners are beginning to see a glimmer of hope for the coming year, with the increase of tourists coming to the Foothills, the efforts of the branding program, the possible sale of the Utica Hotel and the façade improvement plan.
It is the position of our Board, from gathering data from its members who are realtors or landlords, that the Council’s proposed rental figure being discussed publicly ($24,000 to $35,000 a year) is an outlandish figure and completely out of line with current market reality. We strongly recommend that the Council get expert opinion on just what level of rent and expense reimbursement would be realistic in this market and on the odds of being able to rent a 700 square foot space that has a rest area and public toilets as part of the set-up in any reasonable amount of time. We believe that when the Council analyzes realistic rents, the potential for a prompt replacement tenant and the additional costs of servicing the public areas now handled by the CVB against the loss of TOT and sales taxes, additional businesses going under and the loss of tourist visits, the analysis will show the value of keeping the Visitors Center on the same terms as its existing lease.
We recognize and appreciate the enormous task the Council has before it in working to produce a breakeven, or near breakeven, budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and beyond. We know that you must look at all possible ways to cut expenses and increase revenues. However, we are certain that when the City does a true cost-benefit analysis of this particular issue, you will come to the conclusion that charging rent for the CVB’s use of a building that the City owns free and clear to an organization that does so much to increase sales, visitors and business in Angels Camp will only produce negative results – for both the short term and the long term.
Many of our citizens are out of work or under-employed. Many of our businesses are in serious financial trouble or have closed. And, many of our commercial buildings are empty. Tourism is one of only two growth industries in this region today. We are very concerned that the Council’s intentions will seriously damage the one good thing we have going here in Angels Camp.
Time is of the essence. The Visitors Center’s lease ends in October – just five weeks away. If the Council insists on waiting until all budget issues are resolved before a decision is made, it will be too late.
The Angels Camp Business Association urges the City Council to resolve this issue with the Calaveras Visitors Bureau immediately and to negotiate based on market realities. Please do not lose the Visitors Center in Angels Camp.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Menary
Bob Menary, President
∙Sherri Smith, Vice President, CAMPS Restaurant ∙ Ron Rivera, Treasurer ∙ Janet Soest, Secretary, Evergreen Technologies ∙ Vivian Danielsen, Priority Realtors ∙ Anne Forrest, Past President, ABF Enterprises ∙ Steve Hayward, State Farm ∙ Carol Hogan, Best Years Workshop ∙ Michele Lee, Angels Inn & Suites ∙ Veronica Metildi, BVI Insurance ∙ Nick Middleton, Middleton’s ∙ Tony Salazar, Gold Country Inn ∙ Linda Tolerton ∙ Jim Turner, Turner’s Wild West ∙ Erin Croshaw Wilson, Angels Food Market ∙
CC: Dave Richards, City Administrator; ACBA members
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