Letter to the Editor

Brazil in need of parking lots

Sunday, December 23, 2012

To the Editor:

On Saturday, Dec. 1, there was a Moonlight Madness sale in downtown Brazil.

Merchants in the downtown area were open from 7 p.m., until midnight.

It was a success.

Everyone was busy.

A big thank you should be given to the ladies who are co-owners of the Seasoned Wick for their hard work on organizing that evening.

They are Tracey Chiles and Lori Brown.

Thank you ladies.

They worked hard getting the other merchants to recognize that our downtown area needed this boost for business.

Also, we should say thank you to the weatherman for making it a nice evening to be walking downtown.

There was one glitch, though: Parking availability.

Even on a good day downtown, finding parking is pretty tough. The biggest problem was the parking lot at the bureau of motor vehicles.

As we all know, they close at noon on Saturdays.

Therefore, they had no business during the Moonlight Madness sale.

However, anyone who parked in that big, empty lot was in jeopardy of being towed.

It was like the towing company just drove around waiting for people to leave their vehicles.

First, a vehicle must be parked for 24 hours before it can legally be towed, so anyone who did have their vehicle towed that night should check into this.

I cannot imagine anyone from the bureau of motor vehicles calling the tow company that night.

We all need to share our parking lots after hours.

After all, we have a lovely community theater downtown and a lot of people pay good money to go to these plays and should not have to worry about their vehicles being towed.

Every parking space on streets within a two-block area north and south were being utilized.

And some people with special needs just cannot be walking several blocks.

After all, we really don't have much in the way of handicap parking available downtown.

One other thing: Most of the merchants seemed to mention was the fact that no one saw our mayor on that night downtown visiting these shops. Mr. Mayor, when you have merchants who are willing to help build up interest in our downtown area again, the support of you, and your staff would be greatly appreciated.

These people voted for you and they would like to see you from time to time. You should be thanking Tracey and Lori for their support of the community in trying to organize these events downtown.

This was their second Moonlight Madness sale just this year. They are hoping to be able to do a few more this coming year so people can get downtown and see what we have to offer.

For those of you who did come out that night, thank you. Wasn't it nice to shop in stores where people were friendly and helpful and really wanted you to be there?

That is the best part of the small merchants as compared to big stores like Walmart. The employees and merchants really do rely on your support and want you to know how much they appreciate you.

Again, be sure and thank Tracey Chiles and Lori Brown of the Seasoned Wick for all their hard work in planning these things.

They really do have the best interest of our community in mind.

And be sure and stop at all the shops any time.

You will be very happy that you did.

Jaqui Griffith,

Brazil