City of Savannah schedules meeting with downtown business owners regarding St. Patrick’s Day

I’d say this meeting should have at least been scheduled — and probably actually held — well before now.

None of the business owners that I talked to had any idea that the city was expanding this year’s “festival zone” (click here for my thoughts on that) until council voted for the change a couple of weeks ago. Now, less than two weeks before the big event, there’s a meeting for Savannah’s downtown business owners about the holiday. Not a bad idea to hold such a meeting — this just doesn’t seem like much notice.

Anyway, here’s the full press release:

For Immediate Release
Date: March 4, 2013

City invites downtown business owners to St. Pat’s meeting

The City of Savannah invites business owners in the downtown area to attend an informational meeting to review the City’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival plans. The meeting will be held Weds., March 6 at 3 p.m. in the Scarborough Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, 2 W. Bay Street. City staff will review the Festival Ordinance, including the new expanded Entertainment zone, rules for wristbands and alcohol consumption, and share other important public safety messages. Staff from a range of City departments will be available to answer questions from business owners.

The meeting is part of the City’s ongoing efforts to improve and broaden its St. Patrick’s Day communications with downtown residents and businesses. The City will also be using dedicated social media feeds this year to release time-sensitive St. Patrick’s Day information. The City anticipates posting timely announcements that impact attendees and local businesses – everything from street closures to the length of lines at portable toilets to Facebook and Twitter. Visitors, residents and business owners can visit www.facebook.com/savstpat and “like” the page to receive the St. Patrick’s Day notices. City of Savannah Facebook entries also automatically appear in the City’s St. Patrick’s Day Twitter account, which the public can follow at www.twitter.com/savstpat.

Here’s the map of this year’s “Entertainment zone”. I haven’t yet seen any schedule of actual entertainment anywhere in that zone.