City of Marina asks for Handcar Tours lease extension
The city of Marina is requesting that the Handcar Tours attraction extend their lease on the property until the construction of the SURF! project.
Before the request, the Handcar Tours were told to cease operations at the end of the month on October 31. The request, if accepted, will allow the tours to remain on a month-to-month basis before the Monterey-Salinas Transit bus project begins their construction phase.
The Handcar Tour draws tourists from all around to the City of Marina adding to tourism in the area. Yet, with a closure imminent, some locals including employees respond.
"Marina is a small town. You know, it's known for its beaches and things, but we're really the only activity, you know, family-oriented activity in this this town," Handcar Tour guide Wesley Little said. "And, you know, it would just be such a shame to see such a unique, you know, operation like this go away.”
Little has worked at the tour for about a year traveling from Santa Cruz to be a tour guide out of admiration for the attraction.
"Everybody who comes through here is just so supportive of our business and everybody just seems really upset whenever we tell them that they are proposing to close us down," Little said. " the majority of the community really stand behind us."
In a letter on the possible lease extension, City of Marina city manager Layne Long recognized the ongoing economic impact stating "when the hand car company ceases operations and leaves, we believe it will have an impact on our Downtown area."
One business spoke about their concerns over the closure.
"It kind of gives you a little fear of the possibility that, you know, we can we can easily be a business that shut down for whatever reason also," Cheesecake Dreamations general manager Robert Mosqeda said.
A proposal made prior to the request would see the tours move closer to a track by the Marina Library. Rather than go south like the current route along the coast, it would go north toward Moss Landing.
The Transpiration Agency has yet to respond to the proposed lease extension.
