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Show I Page 8 4 Thursday, September 6, 1979 Summer Business Up Despite Adversity Despite the gasoline shortage, short-age, the rising cost of living and the construction on Park Avenue, consumers still managed to come to Park City this summer and merchants mer-chants showed a rise in business over last year. The lack of fuel that created long and irritating gas lines on the East and West coasts may have been a ouon to Kant Cily, since many Wasatch Front residents opted for the cool of the local mountains instead in-stead of inflated long distance traveling costs. And while most people are tightening their belts a notch when it comes to real luxuries, they do allow themselves a little breathing room for pleasantries. pleasant-ries. A case in point was this year's 10th Annual Arts Festival. While most Main Street merchants agree that the crowds seemed thinner than last year, the 170 artists managed to sell more than $500,000 worth of goods ranging from hand woven capes to hand carved furniture. fur-niture. Family Jewels owner Dick Doty notes that this summer business is up nearly 65 percent per-cent over the same period last year. "Most of my business comes from the locals, and local traffic definitely has been affected by the construction con-struction on Park Avenue," Doty said. "And everyone, especially the tourists, is spending conscious. I have a higher volume of sales in the lower priced range, and even in the expensive items. But the middle priced pieces have dropped off. They're spending more to get here, and once they're here, they spend a little less for luxury items. But they're still spending. spen-ding. Those that have the money to spend will buy expensive ex-pensive things anyway. But people do seem more cognizant of what they're buying. All in all, we're way up this July and August over this time last year." Those same people who are buying more, if less expensive, ex-pensive, jewelry, must also be frequenting Mt. Air Market. Owner George Polychronis reports that grocery sales are up 32 percent per-cent over last summer, and he thinks the gas crunch fueled his profits. "I feel the gas shortage actually ac-tually made things better here for us," Polychronis commented. "A lot of people in the Wasatch Front who own condominiums in Park City used them themselves this summer instead of renting rent-ing them while they took a driving vacation. 1 can tell because we haven't really gotten that many out-of-state checks through the store this summer it's mostly been people around the Salt Lake Valley. "I didn't expect that big an increase in business," he continued. "The national average is an 18 percent rise in grocery sales, and we thought we'd see about 22 percent. But we're up about 32 percent and the Mt. Air Cafe is up nearly 40 percent in food sales. The Mt. Air Variety store on Main Street also is up from a year ago, despite the construction on Park Avenue." Perhaps suffering the most with the months-long Park Avenue construction is the Woodhaus. But manager Jim Thompson reports that business still is a little better than last summer. "Who knows how much better we could have done if Park Avenue was working smoothly," Thompson said. "There were times when we were completely barricaded in and the detours had cars going right around us. But I'd guess we're up about 20 percent over last year, even though the passing-by customer lots of times didn't even know we existed." And visitors aren't just coming to Park City for the day, they're coming to stay. ! Although the Holiday Inn was not open this time last . : a it-. h r K W. "M- . SrW 11 :9 af"'"'" in iim. 1 I t 1 1 V summer. With hotels showing a rise in rooms rented, restaurants filled their seats more often than this time last year. Mileti's manager Paul Brown noted, "We're doing better than last summer. August is traditionally a busy month in town, and this one seemed a little busier than usual, what with the Arts Festival. We had expected to do a little more business than we have, but the combination com-bination of the energy crisis, recession and Park Avenue construction has taken a toll. It's the wageprice spiral. It wasn't a bad summer, but it wasn't, of course, as good as we hoped." There was a time when most shop doors were closed in the summer. And those that remained open hoped to coast until winter brought the crowds to Main Street. But new buildings seem to appear daily. And soon to occupy them will be new residents and merchants, creating a year-round economic climate that does not depend on snow-filled clouds. FOR SALE One Bedroom Condo Quiet, Well Cared For In Old To wnPark City PRICED $46,500 Call Steve Strand at Mt. Realty 649-9891 20 reasons why Ming should rustproof your car. Paul Brown of Mileti's. Busier than last summer sum-mer but... 1. Headlight Eyebrow 2. Hood Area 3. Headlight Areas Exterior 4. Seams and Moldings 5. Fender WeHs year for comparison, they did enjoy 52 percent occupancy oc-cupancy in June, 50 percent in July, and 71 percent in August. "We're right on target," commented Debby Travis. "We averaged 60 percent oc cupancy for the summer and experienced a higher walk-in traffic than we expected. The gas shortage seemed to make more Utah residents travel within the state, rather than take longer vacations. We saw a lot of Utahns through here this Cowl and fire Wall 7. Quarter Panels 20 Gravel Shield 19.- Wheelhouse Areas 8. Pillar Posts 9. Door Boi Sections County Pays Part Of Rent The Summit County Commission has agreed to pay $13,000 of the $17,000 in rent the city claims it is owed for the Memorial Building, with the remainder to be negotiated. The agreement came at the commission's Tuesday meeting in Coalville and it relieves, at least temporarily, tem-porarily, fears that the drug prevention program will be moved or terminated. When the city decided to take over the Memorial Building from the county, county officials agreed to rent space in the building for county functions. Based on that agreement, city officials of-ficials calculated the county owes $17,000. The county failed to make any payments and Mayor Jack Green went to Coalville Tuesday in an effort to get the money. He preceded his appearance with a letter ex-; ex-; plaining the situation. "Is that the letter that had the outrageous rent rates in it?" Commissioner Carl Ovard asked. Green told the commission, com-mission, "You gave us the building but you didn't give up your responsibility." The mayor also noted that the city is in "dire need of office of-fice space" and probably will use some of the Memorial Building for that purpose. The commission agreed to pay $13,000 of the rent money, with the rest to be negotiated. Part of their reluctance to pay the full amount stemmed from payments demanded for the rifle range. Green said former for-mer Commissioner Alva Dearden had made a verbal commitment to pay for the range because civil defense materials are stored there. It was agreed that all future rent arrangements will be in writing. Ovard said he "hates to pay those kind of rates" but noted that rents are high in Park City. He also revealed that the county is considering con-sidering construction of a health building in Park City. Marsha Wellever, director of the county's drug prevention preven-tion program housed in the Memorial Building, said she came to the commission meeting expecting "to be thrown out." Mayor Green responded, "Your program is a good program that the community com-munity needs." 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