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Pioneer Editorial: A July 4th economic shot in arm

July 22, 2009

By: Bemidji Pioneer Editorial Board, Bemidji Pioneer

It’s not often that we can celebrate a three-day weekend holiday with the Fourth of July. Most of us will take Friday off, with the holiday observed on Saturday.

At U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s forum earlier this week on tourism, we learned that northern Minnesota resorts may be down 20 percent. And the senator notes a similar decline in international travel.

This weekend provides a dual opportunity — hopefully our resorts will see a lot of activity from Minnesotans who can’t afford a full-flung vacation elsewhere to partake in a close-to-home three-day weekend at the lake in one of our resorts.

Secondly, the high level of activity in our community, especially with the Bemidji Jaycees Water Carnival at the Lake Bemidji waterfront, offers all of us an excellent opportunity to stay at home and enjoy the weekend. From the foot-long hot dogs, brats and other fine eateries at the Water Carnival to the grand parade on Sunday, the weekend promises to be one of fun activities for the family. Taking in a movie, eating at a restaurant or milling about at the mall or dawdling downtown can all help our sagging economy and ring local merchants’ cash registers.

Most of all, it’s finally summer and time to have fun!