In the wake of the Willits Bypass opening about a month and a half ago, some local property owners are expressing concerns about what they say is a surprising and sudden drop in sales and foot traffic into their shops, with at least one food shop owner attributing a permanent closure to a fatal reduction in business as a result of what he perceived to be inadequate signs along U.S. Highway 101.

Nikos Gyro Shop, formerly located at 42 S. Main St., owned by Adrian and Evelyn Fisher, closed down on Wednesday, Dec. 14. The shop’s owners said, following the opening of the bypass, their business dropped more than 40 percent and they were forced to shutter their doors after operating for less than two years in the community.

Adrian Fisher said, compared to this time last year, the business was going along fine, despite a 5 percent decrease in sales during the months of September and October, which he estimated was not too far off from last year’s figures.

“There just wasn’t enough money coming in to keep it going,” he said. “We burned through our reserves pretty quickly. We still had local people coming in, but were only getting an occasional person from out of town.”

Fisher said Caltrans officials had told him and his wife that there would be proper signs for Willits’ population, but people getting off the highway from either end of town, which made up a large portion of their sales, didn’t see enough signs, especially at the north end and at night when it is dark and exit signs are not as clear.

“Without the signs, the city is going to be a ghost town,” he said. “There are people that don’t know Willits is here.”

Fisher said they had been asking Caltrans since the beginning of the summer about the possibility of the shop posting their logo on highway signs, and about advertising options, but despite assurances that there would be enough signs, fewer and fewer people from outside the area were stopping in. He said he noticed his business started to flatline on Nov. 9, the first weekend after the opening, and never recovered.

Evelyn and Adrian thanked local patrons for their continued support via their Facebook page and said their computerized point-of-sale system used to track daily sales pointed to a correlation between the bypass opening and the evaporation of their customer base.

Greta Kanne, owner of the Book Juggler, whose shop has been in Willits for almost 30 years, said her store has also been negatively impacted by the opening.

“It’s like the faucet got turned off,” she said, pointing to a quantifiable decrease in out-of-town revenue versus the business generated by local shoppers, ever since the bypass opened. She said the store, which is open seven days a week, used to attract more customers from outside the area, but those people are not coming in, resulting in a 30 percent drop in revenue.

“Our locals have done a fabulous job of supporting our local businesses,” she said. She added travelers are just not coming into Willits at the same rate. “There are fewer people coming in the door. We track our sales daily. This is a small town, so it’s pretty clear the people who are coming in are local.”

Kanne, who sits on the Willits Main Street Corridor Enhancement Plan Advisory Committee, said she has been encouraging city officials to invest in Main street improvements such as safer crosswalks, improved lighting and build-outs, in order to make the downtown area more pedestrian friendly and appealing. She said one byproduct of the opening is peopled driving at faster rates through Main Street because of a decrease in traffic.

She said local businesses have had to weather a significant loss since the bypass opened, having to look closely at their bottom lines to make projections on staffing and other matters. Although holiday sales have helped to pick up some of the lost revenue, she said it remains to be seen how figures will shape out in January and in the next few months.

“Nobody wants to be all doom and gloom,” she said. “But this is real for all of us, to take a significant hit like this makes it hard to plan for the future.”

According to Kanne, Caltrans sent out temporary construction easement contracts to Main Street businesses this summer and indicated construction projects would take three years to complete, but she said it is unclear to local merchants if it will be three consecutive years, or if they are going to go block by block.

Additionally, civic leaders and contractors have said it can take up to 10 years to complete some of the long-term traffic projects planned for the city.

“We can’t wait for 10 years for those things to happen,” she said. “I don’t see a lot of businesses being able to sustain a drop in business. I think a lot of us have been surprised by how significant and quick the drop was.”

Chamber and city response

Marie Blancas, owner of Moon Lady and Moon Man clothing stores and member of the Willits Chamber of Commerce board of directors, said it is the city’s responsibility to promote the local businesses, especially in light of the bypass passage and its effects on the local economy.

She said the chamber has been working hard attempting to market Willits, including promoting a membership management software package which has developed an app so people traveling through can quickly find out what services are available in the area.

Blancas, a Willits property owner since 1992, said she wonders why city officials didn’t get some signs in place prior to the bypass opening in early November. She attended the Dec. 14 City Council meeting where she called for more traction for signs along the highway.

“There’s no real action yet,” she said. “They knew the bypass was going to open on Nov. 6. They knew this was going to happen 10 years go; they should have been more proactive and should quit playing the blame game. I know for a fact local business owners have been affected, whether they want to say it or not.”

Blancas said the city’s number one priority should be setting up the signs.

“It should have been done six months ago,” she said, adding the city stands to lose a lot of revenue if they further delay the process.

Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie Jr. said the transportation agency is continually working on making the signs more clear to indicate that there are services available beyond the generic “fuel-lodging and camping” signs off the highway. He said there may be additional signs going up within the next couple of months.

He said Caltrans has been encouraging local business owners to apply for getting their logos added to highway signs advertising their services. The cost to do so is a $350 annual fee for advertising in both directions, or $58 per ad.

City Manager Adrienne Moore said Willits City Planner Dusty Duley has been in direct contact with Caltrans and has brought the signage problem to their attention.

“I recently drove through Cloverdale and that’s the type of signs along the highway we are looking for,” she said. “To go beyond the basic signs letting people know about the Museum, businesses and all the other services. I feel we are doing everything we can. We are working with our elected representatives. It’s going to take all of us working together.”