Finding ways to bring more people to downtown Easley and a $9,000 allocation from the city emerged as a major objective of the district’s business association meeting Friday.

Most of the agenda items discussed at the regular 8:30 a.m. meeting at Bleu Voodoo Restaurant involved promoting downtown Easley in some way.

They included a $10,000 radio advertising blitz that comes to merchants at no direct cash outlay and a promotional kiosk on which merchants can advertise at the J.B. Owens Sports Complex.

The Easley Downtown Business Association (EDBA) gathering of approximately 20 downtown business owners heard a presentation from Randy jolly, general sales manager of Clear Channel Media.

“I asked Randy to put together a program for us. He lives in Easley and is one of my neighbors,” said City Administrator Fox Simons.

Jolly described an advertising package designed to promote downtown as a destination for holiday shopping. A second phase would allow individual merchants to promote their specific businesses.

At first Simons said the city would be willing to put up $8,000 of the cost of the promotion, asking the EDBA to pay $2,000. When one of the members pointed out that the Clear Channel printed presentation suggested an allocation of $9,000 from the city, Simons said the city could provide $9,000. That would leave the merchants group with $1,000 to complete the package. The members present approved the expenditure and made contacts with Clear Channel sales staff for production of the ads.

Scott Price, the city’s parks and recreation tournament coordinator, told the group that the city’s sports complex will bring an estimated 175,000 people to Easley next year. “They eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels,” said Simons. Price said that one of his objectives is to encourage those visitors to spend more time in downtown Easley. One way to do that will be to provide a kiosk at the complex for downtown businesses to advertise.

He also said that the recreation department is promoting the sports complex through advertising in sports magazines.