Johnson Street Open For Travelers

In favor or against it, the temporary closure of Johnson St for a trial year as a entertainment area along Main St has come to a dead end. Maybe it was poor timing, bad temperatures or poor planning of events. Either way, the trial closure and option to make it permanent will not happen.

Johson Street Open For Business

Almost a year ago the City Council had held a special meeting to approve the closing of Johnson St and the  purchase by A & P of the stage for various venues. However, the biggest problem seemed to be that the majority of the business owners along Main Street were not even given a choice in the matter. Many especially felt it prevented many travelers access to parking and thus lost business from those who never stopped. This all came to a head recently when Dale Maddox a long time business owner presented to the City Council, at its regularly scheduled meeting, a petition of over 25 individuals with the same opinion. This led to some lively conversation between the City Council members, the Mayor and those in the audience. The surprise result however happened at the next evenings A & P meeting where the Mayor motioned for the stage to be moved and the street re-opened. This was motioned and approved by the A & P board.

 A few days later the stage was moved and the city crews were at work making sure the newly re-opened street would be safe for vehicles turning onto it toward the parking lot. This street is one of the main access points to the main public parking area for tourist. Once the new parking signage is in place we know more tourist will find it convenient to stop and visit our Main Street area.

The trees that had been planted along the street during the closure have been removed and will be transplanted to new locations by City Hall and in Loberg Park.  The “stage” has been moved down to the waste water plant for the time being. We will keep you up to date on its planned future use.

On Sept 4, 2010 the Main Street Of Hardy, Inc sponsored the 3rd annual Junk-N-Jam event which was a great test to see how visitors used the newly re-openend street and the parking area behind it. As the pictures show, it seems not only the event was a great success, but having the easy parking access open again was too!

Parking Lot

Johnson Street

Foot Traffic