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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1985, PAGE 3 If downtown core wants to complete.... B.I.A. needs larger budget: Buffett Signing on the dotted line is all that remains before a $500,000 revitalization project for the downtown core can begin. At its meeting Mon- day night, Whitby Town Council passed a bylaw authorizing Mayor Bob Attersley and clerk Don McKay to sign the agreement with the Government of Ontario under the Community Area Improvement Program (C.A.I.P.). While Whitby's project has already been approved by the government, Ed Buf- fett, chairman of the Whitby Downtown Im- provement Area Board (B.I.A.), said that the agreement is needed to formalize the process. Over the next three years, $500,000 will be spent on a streetscape enhancement project throughout the down- town core. Buffett said that both the town and the B.I.A. will con- tribute $125,000 to the project while the province will provide the remaining $250,000 in grants and loans. Buffett said that the E I.A. will have to repay the $125,000 provincial government loan over a .3 year period once the work is completed, in about three years time. The signing of the agreement will also pave the way for the construction of the long awaited Perry St. parking lot which is scheduled to take place later this year. "I would expect the work to begin in Sep- tember of this year," Buffett told the Free Press in an interview last Thursday. While this physical work is taking place, the board will also be spon- soring two different studies which it hopes will put the downtown core in a more aggressive market position. The first study, being conducted by Totten Sims and Hubicki will develop a store front facade guideline program. Buffett said that the study will pick out six downtown buildings and, through the use of conceptual drawings, demonstrate how they could best be renovated. Buffett added that the board hopes to be able, through this study, to develop a general theme for the downtown area to make it more attrac- tive. The consultant's fin- dings will be submitted to a joint town B.I.A. study committee which will hold public meetings in late August early September. The other study currently underway is a long range marketing and promotion study that is seeking new ways to make the down- town area more com- petitive. "We have to develop a stragedy to promote downtown Whitby," Buffett says, "not only as a place to shop but as a place to locate your business as well." The board, he added, has already undertaken an inventory of existing businesses. What is now needed are new businesses that will complement what is here now. "What we will be looking at is how to fill in those gaps," Buffett said. However, the B.I.A. chairman says that if the merchants in the downtown core are to accept the findings of the marketing study they are facing some tough decisions. The toughest decision of all, Buffett added, will be whether or not to allow the B.I.A.'s budget to jump from $20,000 a year to $80,000 to $100,000 a year. He noted that of the present $20,000 budget, $10,000 is already committed to repaying the C.A.I.P. loans leaving the board with an operation budget of $10,000 - which he says, is a wholly inadequate amount. To compete effec- tively, Buffett says the B.I.A. will need a full- time co-ordinator who will not only provide assistance to the existing downtown business community but will "go out and attract new businesses in the downtown core to fill in the gaps." The B.I.A. will also need its own office space to support the ac- tivities of the co- ordinator and provide a meeting place for board members and downtown merchants. A larger budget will also give the board the ability to provide seminars and other educational programs for its members. Buffett noted that communities such as Aurora have B.I.A.s with budgets such as these and are now boasting tremendous success in their down- town cores. "I feel that the down- town has to become aggressive and progressive," Buffett said. "It's either that or let go of our dreams and aspirations." Much can be done to make the downtown core more attractive and vibrant but in the face of ever stiffer com- petition from the shop- ping plazas and other commercial facilities, the downtown merchan- ts have to make a com- mittment to the future. "The merchants are going to have to make the decision," Buffett says, "They are going to have to ask themselves whether they are willing to pay the price to achieve the success that is possible if we go this route." The chairman also pointed out that for the average merchant a B.I.A. budget of $100,000 would see their con- tribution jump from about $25 a year to $125. "The downtown core must become what its capable of being," Buf- fett says, "We have to have our own phone, have our own office and have a marketing program that is relevant to today's world." And the board's current budget doesn't allow that. "We've made as much of an im- pact as we can on a limited budget," he ad- ded. A traffic accident at the corner of Thickson Rd. and Dundas St. E. last Thursday evening has lead to the arrest of an Oshawa man on several criminal charges. According to a spokesman for the Durham Regional Police Force, three vehicles attempted to make the left hand turn from northbound Thickson Rd. to west bound Dundas St. E. when one of the vehicles moved into the path of another causing the ac- cident. .The vehicle was later spotted by police in When the marketing and promotion study is complete, sometime early in the fall, Buffett expects to hold another public meeting to in- form the downtown members of the board's plans. "If we don't do it, we have just let an ex- cellent opportunity go by," Buffett said adding that the timing for this type of committment "couldn't be better." He notes that the general economy is in downtown Whitby and they discovered that it had been recently stolen in York Region. James Jeffrey Fin- negan, 26, of 633 Radisson Ave., Oshawa, has been charged with possession of stolen property over $200; possession of stolen credit cards; theft of credit cards; two counts of using a stolen credit card; two counts of per- sonation; and, failing to stop after an accident under the Criminal Code of Canada. He will appear in Whitby provincial court Friday to answer the charges. an upswing and mer- chants have an oppor- tunity to seize their fair share of the market. "People shouldn't come downtown because its here, we have to make them want to come here," Buffett said. "Having a good, com- petitive business isn't enough," he added, "We have to create an at- mosphere to making shipping in downtown Whitby a unique ex- perience." But to achieve that, the merchants have to make a commitment. And that commitment will cost money. • Pine Fumiture •Quilts Crafts • Gifts • Antiques Bring in this ad and we'l pay the sales tax on any Item you buy BE SURE TO ASK FOR YOUR FREE COFFEE Located on Brock Road 5 mile, nonh of 401 just south o(Hwy. 17 (8mileseasto(Markham) Brougham, Ont. LOH IAO 416-683-3111 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily Clused Sunday - - - - - - - - - - - CHCKEN . S~EAFC SAYS THANK Y( In appreciation of the tremendous response received t OPENING of DIXIE LEE we would like to thank all our custom this bonus: PLUS REMEMBER EVERY FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SU FOR THE MONTHOF JULY >OD )ui o the GRAND ers by offering n DA NDAY F E 15 pleces of tender frled chlcken SCARBORO I* OSHAWA AJAXI Coke 750 mg. 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