Geneva council OKs bike races July 10

The Geneva city council has approved a July 10 bicycle race series, to the delight of some downtown merchants and the disappointment of others.

The 12-hour closure of some streets, including South Third Street, was approved 6-2. Aldermen Sam Hill and Richard Marks voted against it, and aldermen Ray Pawlak and Ralph Dantino were absent.

Last week, four men who have businesses on South Third expressed concern about the event, including that their shoppers and employees will not be able to find parking that day, and that the street closure may prompt shoppers to go elsewhere on what is their best day of the week for business.

But other downtown businesspeople, including a doctor and a bread-shop owner, were enthused about the event's potential to attract shoppers to downtown.

The riders in the International Cycling Classic's Superweek Pro Tour races will go around and around a 0.8-mile course, part of which goes through the picturesque South Third commercial area, full of boutiques and restaurants. Part of the route is on residential streets.

Pedestrians will be able to cross the streets at intersections monitored by staffers and volunteers supplied by Breakaway Event Productions and Mill Race Cyclery, the local sponsor of the event.

Paul Evans, a business development specialist for the city, said Monday the city surveyed downtown business owners in the last week about the proposal. Forty-six were in favor, and six were opposed, he said.

One of those opposed, Matt Tummillo of La Toccata d'Italia ceramics store, 226 S. Third, asked how many were located on South Third and how many were restaurants, which he believes will benefit from the visitors expected to attend the race. No answer was given.

Tummillo suggested the race be held on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, when many of the stores would normally be closed. But the race is filling a hole in the Superweek schedule that came up when another town dropped out.

Carol Vandenbrook, financial manager for the Geneva Antiques Market, 227 S. Third, noted it would be the third event-related closure of the spring and summer.

For the future, "close some other streets; let some other businesses be affected by your activities, not always Third Street," she said.

Several aldermen said, however, they had to consider more than Third Street, and that exposure for the city overall benefits many businesses, even if shoppers don't show up in the stores the day of the race.

"I sensed from your comments a kind of 'us-versus-them' perspective. That bothered me," Alderman Craig Maladra said. "I can't tell you the amount of energy that we put in to trying to get people downtown. You might experience a dip on the day of the event, but I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts you benefit in the long term."

Street: City council says event will publicize downtown