Some downtown businesses bristle over bike race street closures

Jun. 16—JANESVILLE — Gary Donalson plans to celebrate the return of the Tour of America's Dairyland bicycle races to Janesville's downtown on Thursday and Friday by closing up his Express Employment Professionals office and delivering weekly paychecks to his clients.

Donalson operates Express Employment Professionals at 32 S. Main St. The staffing agency runs payroll on Thursdays and Fridays, but its office will be hemmed in both those days this week because it is inside the stretch downtown that will be cordoned off as part of a closed-loop race course for two days.

Like anyone going in and out of downtown during street closures for the bike races, Express' clients will face a temporary inconvenience: They will have to walk several blocks to reach the staffing agency.

"We've decided to deliver their paychecks to their door or to their workplaces. We've got to take care of our people," Donalson said.

While some local businesses have embraced and even sponsored the downtown bike races as an annual event, Donalson's is one that is opting to close during the races. He said he has lost patience with the inconvenience of sewn-up streets during the Tour of America's Dairyland stop known as the Janesville Town Square Gran Prix.

Donalson and another local staffing agency said they're circulating a petition among downtown businesses that would ask the city of Janesville and local race organizers in future years to consider moving the races outside of downtown, possibly to a city park.

Geri McCluskey runs JIT Staffing Solutions, a staffing agency on Dodge Street that will also be cut off by the bike race closures Thursday and Friday. She said she posed the petition, which she is asking downtown business owners to sign after the bike races to show city officials and race promoters the effects the closures have on some businesses.

"We're not opposed to the bike races. It's just where they're being held and that we have to stop our business for a whole day. This year, for two solid days," McCluskey said.

"We have beautiful parks throughout the city. That's what the petition says. Let's think about moving it to Palmer (Park) or somewhere. If it's held in a park, nobody's going to be closing down their business."

Donalson thinks individual businesses downtown should have more of a voice in the planning, promotion and orchestration of events that might cause street closures.

"Is the point of a downtown to be a vibrant community and a vibrant business area, or is the downtown just to be used at the discretion of some people to try to make outside people think it's a great place even though you affect the businesses here that are trying to stay going?" Donalson said. "What is the most important to the city?

At least one retail business downtown, resale shop Modern Charm on South Main Street, announced via a sign on the door the shop "will be closed June 17 and 18 due to the city closing of downtown vehicle traffic" for the bike races.

The shop wasn't open Tuesday, and several other shop operators along the race course along South Main Street declined to comment on the bike races, the street closures or their effects on their shops.

Paul Murphy, one of the organizers of the races in Janesville, says they are a boon overall for downtown, providing both the foot traffic of thousands of people and national exposure of the city and its downtown to tourists.

It's the first time the annual pro cycling circuit has held two full days of races in Janesville, an opportunity that came about in late April after another community that hosted a stop on the tour pulled out because of lingering public shutdowns during the pandemic.

The Tour of America's Dairyland was scrubbed completely last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this the first year the races have been held downtown since June 2019.

Murphy said he and the races' organizers held an informational meeting earlier this month and invited a few hundred downtown business operators to hear details about the race and share input. He said about 15 business operators showed up.

Murphy expressed disappointment over the new business petition circulating that suggests the bike races should be moved from downtown in the future.

Murphy said the tour's national organizers specifically hunt for cities that want to host races in their downtowns because in theory, the races and downtown commerce in tandem create economic symbiosis and shared exposure for both the tour and the communities it visits.

Murphy said most other communities that host races manage planning through their own business improvement districts, local tourism bureaus or chambers of commerce.

In Janesville's case, the tour stop is organized mainly by Murphy himself and another volunteer, John Westphal. Both are local bicycling enthusiasts.

Murphy said when he initially brought the option for a race stop in Janesville, the city's administration and the city council gave immediate support. Such events fit in with the city's own strategy to revitalize and reactivate the core of downtown with activities and foot traffic.

"We don't come and tell the city that we have to have this bike race. We bring this to the city. And, gosh, in 2018, they supported it. In 2019, they supported it. In 2020 they supported it, but it was canceled. Now in 2021, they supported it again," Murphy said.

"The question is 'What can you do as a community to bring people into your town, specifically your downtown, and what type of venue can you have that will bring people from outside of Janesville into your community?'" Murphy said.

Benny Useni, who runs the Whiskey Ranch Bar & Grill on North Main Street, said the race crowds and the foot traffic they bring to his restaurant seem to roughly backfill a loss in local and neighborhood customers that he attributes to race-day street closures. Add the two together and it doesn't equal a washout or a boom over the short haul.

Yet Useni thinks the exposure the downtown gets from visitors coming to Janesville for an event like bike races has a bigger long-term effect.

"It's a fun day. It gives exposure, it puts downtown Janesville's name out there. That's not just for a few businesses. It's for the entire downtown. It leans more to the plus than the minus," Useni said.