PRAIRIE GROVE -- Downtown merchants requested help from the city so that people driving along U.S. Highway 62 would know how to get to antique stores on Buchanan Street and city officials obliged.
A new wayfinder sign was installed in April at the intersection of U.S. Highway 62 and U.S. Highway 62B on the east side of town. Arrows point to a right turn so that drivers traveling west on the highway will know to turn onto the business route to go to Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, the historic downtown and antique district or to City Hall.
"We're appreciative of anything that is done to help downtown," said Martha Ritchie, owner of Daisies & Olives in downtown Prairie Grove. "We have a good thing downtown and we should be supportive of it. Anything that directs people to downtown is helpful."
Ritchie first approached City Council members in fall 2014, wanting to make sure the new U.S. Highway 62 bypass would not affect businesses downtown. The bypass had opened and visitors would have to turn onto U.S. Highway 62B to go to the downtown area.
Ritchie told of customers who ended up almost to Lincoln before figuring out they had missed the turn to get downtown.
She said her business was not suffering but still appealed to the City Council for signs to direct traffic to the downtown area. Another concern, she said then, was that downtown would lose first-time customers who were just driving through town and deciding to stop and look around.
Like Richie, Shannon Stearman, owner of Crescent Store downtown, also said she likes the sign.
"I think our customers appreciate the sign and I'm grateful for the sign," Stearman said. "We have such a sweet jewel down here. Any kind of signage we can get out there that is appropriate is appreciated and will benefit downtown."
Stearman said she saw a slight dip in the number of her customers when the bypass first opened but now does not believe it has affected her shop.
"Retail is so seasonal," Stearman said. "What we've lost during the week, we've made up on the weekends."
Suzanne Lentz with Summit Hill Cottage said the one difference she's noticed since the bypass opened is that weekends are the same but weekday afternoons are not as busy.
Dee Wright, who has the Pink Pearl Restoration booth at Summit Hill Cottage, said she also would like to see a directional sign on the other side of town for traffic traveling east on U.S. Highway 62 from Oklahoma toward Fayetteville.
Larry Oelrich with the city of Prairie Grove said the wayfinder sign cost $8,000 and was made and installed by D-Sign Inc. of Lowell. Prairie Grove Area Chamber of Commerce committed $2,500 to the cost. Another $3,500 came from a grant and the city of Prairie Grove paid the balance.
Though the sign is expensive, Oelrich said he will ask the City Council to approve purchasing a second sign for Mock Street and U.S. Highway 62 for traffic traveling west toward Lincoln. This wayfinder sign would advertise Rieff Park, the Aquatic Center and the downtown historic district.
"We feel like most people going east from Lincoln know Prairie Grove," Oelrich said. "They are not our target audience."
City officials wondered how the new bypass would affect sales tax revenues. The bypass opened in September 2014. Sales tax revenues for 2015 were 7 percent higher, compared to 2014, Oelrich said. He is not sure yet how the closing of Walmart Express will affect tax collections but for most of 2016, revenues have remained about the same as 2015 figures.
General News on 05/25/2016