An Editorial...Shop Grove

Grove's downtown merchants are a hardy lot. They've put up with those obnoxious Bradford Pear trees, ice storms, power outages, and lately, weeks of torn up streets in front of their businesses. Customers have to cross a footbridge to get to the store doors. It will be over soon, hopefully, when the projects are completed in August.

To their credit, they have not been standing still in their attempts to drum up business.
A "second Saturday" promotion starts soon, with sidewalk vendors and entertainment (provided they can find a sidewalk that isn't torn up); GroveFest is coming, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce; and the merchants wanted to create a program called "Shop Grove." This would attempt to advise locals to shop at home rather than travel out of town. They wanted the city, basically the taxpayers, to fund a nearly $11,000 program.

We sympathize with these merchants. We've owned businesses in the past and know how important it is to keep the cash registers churning, even in difficult times. But unfortunately, asking the city for money these days is like going upriver without a paddle.
Money is tight. It isn't there.

So we would urge the local merchants not to give up, but to create an ongoing public relations campaign using the local media, via news releases and radio spots, with space and time donated by the media owners, who after all, have a large stake in the success of the local merchants via continued paid advertising in good times. It would be the right course at this time.

And, to those empty building owners on Third Street, it's time to fix it, sell it, or tear it down. Your warts are showing!