Walhallans brainstorm Main Street future

The 40-volunteer strong Walhalla Main Street organization recommends city government hire a professional planner to guide the future for Main Street.  At the same time the group, headed by event planner Libby Imbody, is urging the mayor and council to extend the six-month moratorium against “box” or discount stores to allow more time for deliberations on what’s allowed and what’s encouraged within Main Street’s core commercial district, as well as the mixed development of homes and business divided by Main Street’s grass median.  It was a small crowd that sat for last night’s listening session but at the end, Mayor Edwards announced there likely will be at least one more public input opportunity.  The moderator last night, Chip Bentley, senses a consensus among those who spoke up last night.  It appears that Main Street residents and newly-arrived business people to the downtown are opposed to the possibility that a Dollar General would like to take up space on Main Street, in part, because of the drain that such a discount store might take on those who are already invested there.  But not everyone agreed.  Berry Nichols said he would hate to see the city “become nothing more than a tourist attraction,” and he complained that he has to drive to Seneca for certain items such as clothing, shoes, and food that can be prepared in the home.  Nichols sentiments, however, were challenged by others in the audience, including realtor Cliff Powell who described Walhalla as being at the crossroads in making decisions that’ll dictate what the city is like in the next 50 years.