Town Hall draws crowd

Wednesday night’s special Town Hall meeting on the challenges of running a business in Bishop, hosted by the Bishop City Council, was held in the Tallman Pavilion at the Tri-County Fairgrounds. Judging by the numbers attending (over 100), it was a great success. Bishop’s

City Administrator Jim Tatum organized the event. The whole idea of the workshops is to start a dialogue with the local business community. Much of the meeting had to do with the simple idea of making Bishop a “destination” rather than just a place visitors drive through on their way somewhere else.

There were concerns expressed over the lack of parking in town and the effect of parking restrictions on several local businesses. Several business owners that lease their property from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power expressed concern over rumors that the department was planning to only offer 5-year leases and then opening the lease to others, with the lease going to the highest bidder. The need to better promote and enhance the current local public Wi-Fi set-up on Main Street was also brought up.

Branding was also mentioned throughout the meeting. The importance of promoting and a coordinated approach on “Why people should stop in Bishop, whether for just a few hours or a few days” is one of the challenges facing the local chamber of commerce and business owners.

The City will be posting the results of the meeting online. More meetings are planned. City Administrator Jim Tatum asked that anyone with any ideas that they would like to share can contact him by email at jtatum@cityofbishop.com or call him at (760) 873-5863.