Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 11, 1993 TAG: 9312130310
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
``I think we're underestimating our own market,'' clothing store owner Alex Rygas told other members of the Pulaski Main Street Inc. Board of Directors Thursday in suggesting a new direction for PMI's advertising money.
``The majority of the money is being spent from here to Timbuktu,'' he said. ``Ninety percent is being spent far, far away.''
However, some of the shops along Main Street - including many of the new ones established during the past year under a business recruiting program carried out by Main Street program director Roscoe Cox - depend on those far-away shoppers.
Customers at many of the new antique stores have been drawn to Pulaski by interstate billboard advertising and ads in antiques magazines that circulate in other states.
Audrey Jackson said she asked 35 customers at the Upstairs/Downstairs Store where they were from when she handled sales while owner Marlis Ryssel-Flynn was in Germany.
She said one was from Dublin, one from Galax and one from Hillsville.
The rest were travelers enticed off the highway by a billboard advertising Pulaski's antiques, art, music and dining facilities.
The town of Pulaski has helped support the Main Street program over the years, including a recent infusion of $37,863. Sooner or later, Rygas said, the merchants themselves will have to take over the advertising.
``The Town Council has been very gracious, in my opinion, for the past couple of years,'' he said. ``I am convinced that the town is not going to subsidize PMI in the future to the extent that it has been subsidized.''
But Jackson thought the merchants could raise a sufficient advertising budget to continue drawing tourists to Pulaski, as well as targeting the surrounding area.
``We don't need to be pulling in opposite directions,'' agreed Debbie Jonas, a shop owner.
Vice President Karen Graham said she would seek the formation of a committee to study advertising in depth, once the new board takes office next year.
Graham and Jonas have both been nominated for president in 1994; Rygas for vice president; and Paul Etzel, owner of the Renaissance Restaurant, as secretary-treasurer.
Officers and board members will be chosen at the annual PMI meeting to be scheduled in January.
In other business, the board named Ryssel-Flynn as a new member. Ryssel-Flynn is the new president of the Pulaski Business Alliance and, as such, has an automatic seat on the PMI board.
She reported that the alliance, formed under the PMI organizational umbrella as a downtown promotional organization, will be raising money next year by selling raffle tickets on a $500 Valentine shopping spree at Pulaski stores. Tickets will be on sale from Jan. 2 through Valentine's Day Feb. 14.
Jackson suggested that, since Pulaski County's only overnight accommodations are at the Comfort Inn in Dublin, Pulaski businesses also coordinate tourism activities with nearby Wytheville which has hundreds of motel rooms.
by CNB