Greeters welcome visitors downtown

Visitors to Glendale’s downtown business district can now count on getting pointed in the right direction by blue-shirted “ambassadors.”

Rick Lemmo, president of the Downtown Glendale Assn., said the ambassador program is contracted through Block by Block, a company based in Louisville, Ky. that provides safety, cleaning and hospitality services such as greeting shoppers and theater-goers as well as picking up trash and keeping the surroundings tidy.

“When [visitors] see somebody with the blue shirt and tan pants and blue hat, that’s an ambassador working not just to keep the city cleaner, but to provide information,” Lemmo said.

The ambassadors are paid out of the association’s $475,000 annual sidewalk beautification budget, Lemmo said.

About a dozen ambassadors have been patrolling Glendale’s downtown district during daytime hours since the beginning of the month.

Lemmo said the association is pleased with how smoothly the program started, and there are plans to expand it.

“As office buildings continue to repopulate, so to speak, we’re expecting a major influx of new visitors,” he said. “As businesses are available in the evening, there will be more ambassadors on different schedules.”

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