The ‘Slice of Summer’ will use West Elm, Maple streets again this year – not Main Street
Several downtown Graham businesswomen successfully pressed the city council member last week to keep the 100 blocks of North and South Main Street open during an upcoming street festival so that those businesses won’t lose sales that day.
Graham’s city council members voted 4-1 last week to close the 100 blocks of North and South Maple Street – rather than any part of Main Street – as well as the 100 and 200 Blocks of West Elm Street during the Slice of Summer festival that will be held on the last Saturday in June. Those blocks will be closed to through traffic from 1:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., and 20 on-street parking spaces will be blocked, in order to run hoses from hydrants to various water attractions.
Slice of Summer is an annual festival in downtown Graham that features a Slip N’ Slide and other water attractions, food trucks, and live music.
Voting in favor of the option that leaves the 100 blocks of North and South Main Street (and 30 parking spaces) open during Slice of Summer were: council members Bobby Chin, Joey Parsons, Bonnie Whitaker, and mayor Jennifer Talley.
Graham mayor pro tem Ricky Hall cast the lone vote against. He said he preferred the first option that called for closing the 100 blocks of North and South Main Street – and the 100 blocks of East and West Elm Street – from 2:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on June 28. That option would’ve also required blocking off 30 on-street parking spaces to run to the attractions.
“It’s one day of the whole year for the street to be closed, and it’s one of the biggest events to bring people to downtown Graham,” Hall told The Alamance News following the vote. “It may not bring people to your business today, but they know that it’s there.”
Council members heard last week from several downtown business owners, all urging them to keep the 100 blocks of North and South Main Street open.
The businesswomen – Bella and Brittany DiStefano of Sandy & Co.; Renée Russell, owner of 64 Harvard at 116 West Harden Street; and Amy Wilkinson of The Main Line at 134 North Main Street – told the council last week that that Saturdays are one of their busiest days of the week, and they would lose business if the 100 blocks of North and South Main Street were closed during the event. In particular, Sandy & Co. would lose business at one of the most popular times of the year for weddings.
Wilkinson told the council that she and several others had surveyed 24 downtown business owners, and only one, Sutton’s at The Wrike at 114 North Main Street, wanted the festival to be held on Main Street.
Other business owners said in response to the survey that no downtown business owners should be forced to close as a result of lack of on-street parking and other potential disruptions to their business, based on survey responses that Wilkinson cited and the results of which were furnished to The Alamance News.
“A lot of the business [owners who have children] agreed it did better on Elm Street [last year],” Wilkinson said. “I believe we can find common ground here. Whenever you have a retail business, it really depends on foot traffic.”
“I never heard a complaint when it was on Elm Street,” Talley acknowledged. “I heard from one business owner who [said], ‘I go almost all week [without a customer].’ It’s hard to respond to that. Nobody is trying to do anything to hurt anybody’s business. We have to be careful whenever we plan that [events] are fund but not hurting anybody. The city depends on sales tax; [it’s] very important to take into consideration that this is a business district, not a park.”
The mayor stressed that she wants to “have a wonderful event” where everybody’s happy.
Brittany DiStefano of Sandy & Co., a clothing consignment shop, pointed out that it would be easier to hold the Slice of Summer on a Sunday when there’s less demand for on-street parking and most of the businesses downtown are closed. “A lot of brides come in as soon as we open at 10:00 [a.m.] on Saturday,” she said. “Typically, it does impact traffic…it does impact the whole day. That Saturday can be the biggest day we have [for sales] in June.”
Russell, owner of 64 Harvard, a custom framing shop, told the council last week, “I, on one Saturday, will make $2,000, and the next Saturday, maybe zero dollars. The last two years, during Slice [of Summer], I made zero dollars, so one day is a big deal. I have an art business; people aren’t going to bring in art to have framed.”
Wilkinson said, “A lot of our customers want to park close, so to us, those 30 spaces are significant.”
Whitaker drew fire from several audience members – whose objections were audible – when she suggested that the street closures shouldn’t be modified to appease a handful of people. “We need to nail this down in this meeting so they [the sponsors] can secure their vendors and what not,” the councilwoman said during last week’s discussion. “We moved it last year for one or two businesses that complained.”
Responding to Whitaker’s comment from the audience, Brittany DiStefano said, “You are making a lot of people unhappy on a Saturday; that’s how I feel, and that’s how all these other businesses feel that we’ve gotten information from. I don’t see anyone here supporting option one other than you.”
The Slice of Summer festival will be held from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 28. No rain date is scheduled.
