Eight of the 15 board members of the Historic Park City Alliance voted to cut Saturday, Sept. 5 from the schedule of car-free Saturdays, leaving Oct. 3 as the last remaining Saturday this year where Main Street will be free of vehicular traffic.
The HPCA sent out a survey to all their members last week asking if they supported closing Main Street for the remaining two Saturdays that the Park City Council had already approved – Sept. 5 and Oct. 3.
More than 70 members responded. The votes were tallied and because the vote was so close - 51 to 48% – HPCA Director Alison Kuhlow says they took it to the board of directors to decide.
Only half of the board members returned their electronic vote and based on that tally, Kuhlow says they will keep Saturday, Sept. 5, closed to cars and will reopen Main Street to vehicles on Oct. 3.
“Because the Sept. 5 date is on Labor Day weekend, they felt that people who are comign to town would be looking for something a little bit more that weekend, and so that would be a good Saturday to keep,” she said. “They felt like that Saturday could be successful but based upon the feedback from the rest of the merchants that car-free Sundays doesn’t help the other half, they essentially split the baby.”
Car-Free Sundays on Main Street will continue through Oct. 25.