Gettysburg Pa - Fighting a Battle all over Again

Gettysburg Pa - Fighting a Battle all over Again

No I am not talking about the proposed Casino, I am talking about Gettysburg Pa's fight for it's business life. It appears that the Gettysburg boro is clearly on the ropes, it has been down for the count in this fight and it's small business life is losing, big time. Lets take a look at how this battle in Gettysburg Pa has played out so far. Not too long ago the National Park Service decided to build a new visitor center, that move has put an incredible  financial burden on the businesses in the Steinwehr corridor. It has become clear that the recent economic downturn was not the culprit, even with the economy improving, the Steinwehr business corridor continues to hurt from the lack of foot traffic that the relocation of the visitor center has created.

In addition to that situation, Gettysburg Pa has been dealing with a problem with it's compliance to ADA regulations. When you inquire about who is to blame in this situation no-one seems to have a clear answer, the boro, the state, the plaintiff. The reality, businesses are closing because of the situation, and Gettysburg Pa has been struggling to keep businesses in the store fronts.

Now the latest attack to the Gettysburg Pa business fiscal health is the work being done on Chambersburg St, one of the main through ways through the center of Gettysburg Pa. Beginning in April of this year crews have been doing a myriad of work on the street and sidewalks on Chambersburg St. The two block downtown location has it's parking meters bagged and no one can park on the main drag, hence no one is going into the businesses along the main route. Businesses are reporting sales decline's up to 35%. The worst part of this whole affair is that the construction is going to continue into July, pretty much killing any chances of businesses along the route to survive.

Why does this situation concern me, a Realtor in the area? Simple, the health of the business community in Gettysburg Pa directly affects my business. The powers that be in this borough are slowly and assuredly killing the business community here. Everything from business owners, landlords, employees are all being adversely affected, and it is the taxpayers of the borough that are going to be asked to make up the loss in business revenue. All of this is going on with our elected officials from State Reps, State Sen, to borough council members sitting by and exclaiming that there is nothing they can do. I respectfully disagree, and am extremely concerned about the plight of our local business community, before too long we will have a business and tax payer community that is bleeding money on it's way to a slow death. We can just not let that happen.