Open Air Weekends are Returning to Amherstburg
Open Air Weekends are returning to Amherstburg this coming summer.
Councillor Don McArthur says council voted unanimously during 2021 budget deliberations to continue with the program for another year.
The initiative was introduced last July as part of the town's COVID-19 recovery and revitalization plan.
McArthur says the program created a buzz for Amherstburg.
"It worked last summer and there's no reason to believe it won't work again," he says. "Businesses in the core loved it, residents loved it, tourists loved it and people were talking about it all over Essex County, just how cool it was to go to downtown Amherstburg for Open Air Weekends."
McArthur says council has ear marked $50,000 for the program.
"Council recognized that it really built a buzz for Amherstburg in the summer drawing tourists from across the region and it really lifted the entire town up at a time when we needed lifting up," says McArthur.
McArthur says timelines for the launch of the program are still being finalized.
"Those sorts of details are going to have to be worked out with the businesses because the whole point is to bring people into the downtown core, tourists and residents, to circulate some currency in the core to help the businesses," says McArthur.
Open Air Weekends allows businesses in the core area to create flex zones for opening streets and sidewalks for extended patios and retail sidewalk sales.
The program ran every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for most of last summer and early fall.