Chamber moves to next stage of downtown plan

PRINCE GEORGE – Downtown and all that ails it was the focus of a meeting pulled together by the local Chamber of Commerce, held last night at the Courtyard Marriott. CEO Todd Corrigall says he heard about the more common complaints around vandalism, overt drug use, safety. But he also heard one common theme.

“To a tee, everyone has expressed the same concerns. They don’t feel like they’re involved in the process and they don’t feel like when they put their time and effort into a process that they’re being engaged in a reciprocal fashion.”

He says he presented options available that would address some of the issues from a policy perspective.

Downtown business owner Bernie Schneider says he’s glad the matter of downtown is finally getting some attention, but there need to be solutions immediately because businesses are at wits’ end. “I’m feeling like we have some momentum. But there’s still a lot of work to do. There’s the long term goal that comes from this, but there’s also the short term goal. People are actually hurting and closing their busiuness because of this problem.”