Scott:

     A Downtown Merchant Association sounds like a fantastic idea!  I bet if such an organization was formed it would be much more proactive than the Chamber, membership would be younger and energetic plus you’d some bring much needed positive attention to our town; which would be a welcome change to our community!   Go for it Scott - just so long as you don’t want to paint the tower with anything!

           - Name withheld

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NW:  I'd say a Burton downtown merchants' association may be just the touch!  We could meet and actually NETWORK instead of listening to some speaker from bumfuckegypt who has absolutely nothing to do with Burton and is just thumping their tub...  Main Street merchants need to meet and INTERACT and share ideas, plan events that bring people into Burton and increase COMMERCE!  No more old folks dinners and glad-ragging with bombastic speeches that start no where and end no where.  I have absolutely NO TIME for time-waste activities like that - I'm too busy WORKING in the evenings and MAKING MONEY!  My time is very, very valuable and if not used properly I very quickly leave any meeting of idiots.

         The Burton Chamber of Commerce has been a snake eating its tail for YEARS now with absolutely no progress whatsoever.  The Burton Village Council is too busy bushwacking the BPA and could care less about us merchants - it's time we did our own thing.  Absolutely NO ONE would be let into the meetings unless they OWNED A BURTON BUSINESS on the Main Street.  We could raise our own money, schedule our own activities and NETWORK.  We could talk about promotion, festivals, special events and the decor or Main Street.  The hell with the council (such as it is now anyway) and the chamber.  We're going to go our own way and BE PROGRESSIVE.  I'm talking murals, tree trimming (so the fronts of our stores can be seen!), helping each other with store fronts, festivals of our own making, coupon books, special advertising, networking, using each others' businesses when we need materials, etc., etc. 

     There is much to do!  And of course we would NEVER discuss the painting of the water tower with hickish garbage...