Business creation surged in March. The city clerk’s office recorded 49 new businesses registered and 17 renewed, for a total of 66. The total last month for all businesses was 49.

March also ends a trend seen in the previous four months in which business creation and renewal figures closely tracked figures from the same periods five years ago. Figures from March 2006 showed 57 business created or renewed.

Interim figures were: 54 businesses created or renewed in March 2007; 58 businesses in March 2008; and an impressive 78 businesses last year in the same period.

Businesses have to be renewed every four years, according to workers in the city clerk’s office, indicating less than 30 percent of new businesses from exactly four years ago were renewed this month.