BIA sees strong start to Open Air Dunlop program
Now in its second weekend of the season, officials with the Downtown Barrie Business Association (BIA) say the Open Air Dunlop program is off to a strong start.
The program, which officially launched for its second year on June 12, sees Dunlop Street closed between Mulcaster and the Five Points intersection on Saturdays throughout the summer.
"Our businesses are really just loving seeing the customers come in, smiling faces, happy faces, and you know sales are up," says Kelly McKenna, the executive director of the BIA. "Theyve had their doors closed for months, and last week when we opened up, they said it was some of the best sales they've had in over a year.
One of those business owners is Jill Dyck. For the last 17 years, Dyck has owned Bohemia Barrie, which has seen many iterations over those years, now operating as a coffee shop. After a challenging year, she's welcoming the increase in business.
"I've kept going throughout this whole thing. But it's not the same," Dyck says to CTV News. "Keeping going is not the sort of a celebration. And this is the first celebration that we've really been able to have after this long pandemic."
Dyck admits that she initially wasn't supporting the program when it launched in the summer of 2020. However, she says her opinion has changed.
"I think this is really the right direction to go for downtown Barrie," Dyck says. "It just allows people to relax more and see what's down here and be acquainted with the people that have businesses down here, the little cute places that you wouldn't normally see if you were walking by them."
For more information on the Open Air Dunlop program, you can click here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.