The borough is searching for a solution to complaints from residents.
By MATT CASEY
For the Daily Record/Sunday News
Article Launched: 05/29/2007 01:53:38 AM EDT
May 29, 2007 ? The Gettysburg borough public safety committee discussed an ordinance recently that would cap the number of participants in walking-tour groups, and some tour operators aren't happy about it.
The borough has been considering changes to the voluntary guidelines since last year, when Baltimore Street residents complained about noise, littering and property damage because of the growing number of ghost tours in the borough. At least 13 companies conducted tours last year.
Code Enforcement Officer Bea Savage said she discovered an ordinance in another town that required tours to keep a certain distance from each other and limited groups to 15 people.
"I think this would do the trick," Savage said, calling the ordinance a "good middle line" between current voluntary guidelines and much stricter rules in other areas.
But Cindy Codori-Schultz, owner of Sleepy Hollow Ghost Tours, doesn't believe large tours are unmanageable.
Codori-Schultz said she has been giving tours for 11 years, and her company can manage as many as 45 people in a tour.
She also called a 15-person cap unfair because ghost tours are a seasonal business and susceptible to financial losses from changes in the weather.
"It kind of angers me that they're thinking about putting limits on numbers," Codori-Schultz said.
She said she keeps her customers off people's porches and out of their flower beds, blaming the problem on a small number of companies that act irresponsibly. She said she has seen tour groups with as many as 70 participants.
"It is a problem, and I see (the borough's) point," Codori-Schultz said.
Ray Davis, manager and storyteller for the Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours, said he can see the merit in regulating tours, but not as strictly as the committee discussed.
He said the borough should not simply adopt a law written by another municipality because "to use their exact formula doesn't make sense for Gettysburg."
"We're talking thousands of people on a given weekend going on these tours," Davis said. He said a cap of 30 people per tour would make sense. He already limits his tours to about that number.
Davis also said he could understand a set distance to maintain between tour groups, but it would depend on how much distance.
Strasburg borough, in Lancaster County, requires walking tours to maintain 500 feet between each other.
At that rate, Davis said, he would need to stretch out the groups of 250 people he sometimes gets by more than a mile.
"Fifty feet would make sense," Davis said.
http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_6009707
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