ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The Pulaski Business Alliance will poll business and professional people throughout the town's historic district to see how they want the downtown to be marketed.
The organization's president, Pat Gooch, will send a questionnaire to several hundred stores and offices seeking ideas.
Gooch and Barry Matherly, Pulaski's economic development director, also have talked about the possibility of an on-line computer database listing all the goods and services available in downtown Pulaski. The idea would be to promote shopping at home by citizens of the town and Pulaski County.
The cost of such a venture has not been determined, Gooch said.
The group also discussed merging the Alliance with Pulaski Main Street, the umbrella organization that spun off the Alliance in the first place. Main Street has been inactive since the town organized its own Economic Development Board last year.
Bringing the two organizations together could help keep Pulaski in the national Main Street program. The Alliance also would have access to money left in the Main Street fund for downtown promotional activities.
The Main Street board approved the step more than a year ago, and the town is to do the legal research to see how a merger would be done.
"We need some new blood. I feel like we really need to expand this group," Gooch said of the Alliance.
In other business the Alliance reported:
$1,200 has been donated by businesses toward two annual town festivals.
Continued efforts to get new exposure through advertising, as well as through the state's tourism department and national Main Street program.
The next meeting of the Alliance will be at 8:30 a.m. March 13.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB