Business bothered by plans for carnival

Owner: Parking lot closure cuts income

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

By JOHN R. PULLIAM

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - The issue of when to close a downtown parking lot for the Railroad Days carnival proved one of the most contentious issues discussed during Monday's meeting of the Galesburg City Council.

Although Railroad Days is June 25 and 26, the request was to close the parking lot from June 20-26.

Dennis Case of Casey's Party Creations, 220 E. Main St., was outspoken about the business lost during the week.

"Our main objection is you tie up the lot for a whole week," Case said. "It's money the merchants will never recover."

Case also questioned having a carnival in the first place.

"To think you have to have a carnival to make this event a success is just ludicrous," he said.

Case said business people would be more receptive to the lot only being closed Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Alderman Lomac Payton, Ward 4, said the carnival workers are capable of moving the equipment in by noon Wednesday and having everything ready by 5 p.m. the same day.

"Why do you have to tie up the parking lot on Tuesday?" Payton asked.

"Personally, I don't see a problem," with keeping the parking lot open until at least Wednesday, said Dennis Clark, chairman of the Railroad Days Council, but he said he did not have a copy of the contract with the carnival with him, so he didn't know if the Railroad Days Council could prevent an early set-up.

Clark said, however, that while he understood the feelings of the businesses, there could be a residual benefit, as people coming to town for Railroad Days might come back in the future and shop at the stores on Main Street.

"I will definitely check into this and I will try and get these dates moved back as far as possible," Clark said.

"We've been told in the past they would work with us and this is about the third or fourth year," Case said. "Nobody has contacted us."

Alderman Bill Kendall, Ward 2, pointed out that the meetings of the Railroad Days Council are open to the public and the business people could have attended and made their concerns known.