Signal Mountain, Tennessee Issues and Happenings

 

I am concerned about the future of Signal Mountain business. Most of you have probably heard that Seventeen Ninety, the excellent new restaurant recently opened by Rick and Nancy Adams of Southern Star fame has closed. I have just found out that another business, CLS Lighting is also closing. Anthony and Barb Amabile moved to this community and opened this business, but have been unable to attract enough customers to keep it open. Fortunately, in both cases these business owners have alternatives. Southern Star will continue to serve excellent sandwiches and salads. Anthony is a Master Electrician and also runs Signal Mountain Electric Service. He is available for electrical work and also specializes in generator installation. You can reach Anthony at 591-1632 or his cell at 838-9220. Snoda and I have had Anthony work on some things at our house and we can vouch for his quality and integrity. As they close the retail shop, I understand they will be selling lightbulbs at 15% discounts, so drop by and wish them well and stock up on bulbs.

http://www.signalmountainelectric.com/ 

 

I don't have any magic answers, but clearly we can all try harder to patronize our local businesses. Perhaps you can save a few dollars at Walmart, but giving your business to your friends and neighbors pays dividends for your extra investment. As a town, I have long been concerned that we are not friendly enough to businesses. Many of you know that I have had concerns about our Design Review Commission. Everyone wants our town to be attractive, but empty store fronts are pretty ugly, too. If no one can see your sign and don't know what your business is, it is hard to make a go of it. I have seen the amount of harassment our town has given to new businesses in town (on top of WWTA and other regulatory agencies). I think this needs to be seriously looked at.

I have heard rumors of other businesses teetering on the edge of closing, too. I urge all my fellow Signal Mountain residents to check local before going "off the mountain". We have some excellent restaurants up here, but we won't if they don't have customers. Check out the Mountain Business Associations website http://signalmba.com/ to find out about some of our businesses. Obviously there are many more who aren't members of the MBA, also. All of our businesses are important, check 'em out! If any local businesses would like for me to mention them in a blog, I am happy to do so. Just send me a brief write-up and an image if you'd like and I'll put it on here. My rates are cheap (free!). Just doing what I can to help.