Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With little discussion, City Council agreed Monday night to bring the matter up during next spring's budget workshops. Mayor Jim Taliaferro told members of the Salem Merchants Association to start looking for sites.
Councilor Alex Brown suggested the carriage house in Longwood Park that once accompanied a mansion that burned down years ago.
"It's a very, very beautiful building," he said. "It needs to be saved."
Brenda Bower, a member of the 125-member Merchants Association's board of directors, said the group wants the city to fund an "official" center, which she called a necessity for Salem.
Although the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau is a regional organization, Salem isn't really served by it, Bower said.
The Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce on North College Avenue serves as a visitors center now, mailing packets to newcomers and helping visitors who walk in off the street.
The kind of center the merchants envision would include the chamber's office within it, as well as the city's special events and marketing offices. It also would promote the city's events and market the area as a tourist spot.
Judy Griesenbrock, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, said her office's spot near the old courthouse offers little parking for visitors. And she said a Salem visitors center needs to be larger than the one in her office.
About sharing one with Roanoke, she said, "I really feel Salem would need their own. It could be like an arm of the visitors center downtown [in Roanoke]."
Any place Salem selects would need plenty of parking and signs to direct people there, Griesenbrock noted. That might be hard to find on popular Main Street.
"There's just no place we could even touch, I don't think, on Main Street," she said.
by CNB