Plumas Street reopened to traffic Tuesday

Plumas Street reopened to through traffic Tuesday.

A stretch of the busy roadway was shut down since Saturday to allow downtown businesses to expand their operations outdoors to allow for more patrons, following the latest

state requirements imposed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Some downtown business people were enthusiastic. Some were not.

Yuba City Mayor Shon Harris said the closure was stopped at the request of the Downtown Business Association after feedback was received from several local business owners expressing concerns about effects the roadway closure would have on their businesses.

Francisco Serrano, owner of Dance.fit.life, said the road closure would cause the business on Plumas Street to lose income, attendance and could possibly cause them to go out of business because of the inconvenience and lack of access for customers.

“So many of us are on the edge of going out of business because of the pandemic and now they are taking the only parking we have,” said Serrano on Monday.

After the plan to close the road was submitted to the City Council for approval, Serrano said he went around and spoke to other business owners in the area to get their reactions and collected 15 signatures of business people against the road closure.

Harris said that after the feedback, the decision was made to reopen the roadway.

“We are open to new ideas, and we are trying to be as flexible as possible,” said Harris. “This didn’t quite work out as anticipated but we will continue to explore new ideas.”

Sandee Drown, president of the Yuba City DBA and owner of the Happy Viking, said the DBA plans to shutdown Plumas Street for a Marketplace event on Aug. 8 and again sometime in September, but an official date for the second event has not been set at this time.