Main Street, from Morrison Street to High Street, was closed again during last Friday’s Main Street Live summer concert series. Traffic was detoured through West Colville Street to South High Street from approximately 5:30 to 9 p.m. 

This caused an extreme decrease in sales for Super Rama Foods manager Keith Hollingsworth, who came before the McMinnville Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday night.

“Just wanted to reiterate that I’m still against the closing of West Main Street entirely,” said Hollingsworth. “We’ve been through a couple of shows and it totally killed my business Friday night. Once they roped that off at the back, I might have done 25 percent maybe of what I normally do.”

Asked Mayor Ben Newman, “So you were down 75 percent?”

Answered Hollings-worth, “Absolutely. We’ve had phone calls from people who were confused and they didn’t know how to navigate the traffic. I think it was actually an issue because of our sales.” 

Asked Alderman Mike Neal, “Did you say something about you couldn’t get one of your commercial trucks in there?”

Answered Hollings-worth, “That’s correct. The bread company won’t deliver to us on a Friday night anymore.”

Board members continued discussion on full street closure for Main Street Live. Mayor Newman summarized several issues he observed.

“It seems like we are hurting a business and that’s not good,” said Newman. “The attendance numbers are down and we are not getting any safety benefits because the reroute down Colville causes another hazard on a less-lit road.”

Since McMinnville Police Department officers are used to divert traffic onto Colville Street, the board asked Police Chief Denton for his input.

“There was feedback from folks who worked it that they preferred the one lane down the middle,” said Denton. “We can handle it either way.”

The motion was approved unanimously to revert back to one lane of traffic through Main Street as it was before.