BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Burlington Business owners say the city has made an effort to be more accommodating to their needs leading up to the holiday season.
The lights are being hung and shoppers are ready for the holidays. The Burlington City Council is also working to bolster businesses this shopping season, recently approving $60,000 for a special police detail downtown.
“The added funds that the City Council and the administration have provided for this are gonna make a huge, huge difference. Just having more police presence on the street absolutely will limit some of our loss,” said Mark Sherman, who owns Outdoor Gear Exchange.
Sherman says the business has been plagued by shoplifters losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise in the last few years, prompting him to move part of his operation to Essex last year. He says he is heartened by changes to the city’s trespassing law that allows non-sworn city officials to issue notices of trespass and write tickets for shoplifting and open drug use. “the reality is that more people issuing trespass warrants can be helpful,” he said. He says the uproar over construction that would have blocked a key intersection has also resulted in changes. “The city is hearing us and the city understands that businesses need their support.”
The city is also engaged in a large marketing campaign for the holiday season. The tree lighting, holiday markets, and activities like meeting Santa, carolers, and a kids train, are all part of the push to get people downtown.
“I’m concerned about the economy of Burlington. I’m concerned that it remains active and vibrant. Only an active, engaged customer base can make that happen. And that’s why we’re doing these pushes to really reach that customer base and get them into our downtown,” said the city’s Kara Alnasrawi.
The official start of the holiday season begins on Friday with the tree lighting at the top of Church Street. The city is dropping parking fees to 99 cents from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day in the downtown core.