The Polk County Appearance Commission presented its 2013 Beautification Awards to the Town of Tryon, the Polk County Republican Party and Tryon Fine Arts Center. The awards were presented during the Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting held Monday, July 8.

This is the third year the appearance commission has presented the awards. The awards are given for projects that can be viewed from public roads or sidewalks either publicly or privately owned.

“The Appearance Commission began this tradition to thank and honor our citizens for their contributions to the beauty of our county,” said appearance commission chair Joe Cooper.

Crys Armbrust accepted the award for Tryon, which was given for the town’s streetscape improvements in several areas of downtown, including the landscaped intersection of New Market Road and South Trade Street and improvements in parking and landscaping along McCown Street. Deon Dunn accepted the award for the Polk County Republican Party presented for replacing the old building on South Peak Street in downtown Columbus with the new Sarah Ernst Danall Republican Headquarters.

Beth Child and Rita Landrum accepted the award for the Tryon Fine Arts Center, presented for designing and building the outdoor amphitheater, landscaped grounds and new parking area in Tryon. Cooper presented the awards and thanked commission members Carolyn Ashburn and Cathy Brettman for their work publicizing the awards and collecting applications. Cooper said making Polk County more beautiful for the public to see has the immediate benefit of allowing those of us who live here to enjoy our home and county more as well as economic and tourism development benefits.

“When our buildings and roadsides are beautiful, clean and green we have a better chance to bring in new businesses, grow our existing ones and provide more local jobs,” Cooper said. “We are attracting tourists and guests who will stay a while, eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores and stay in one of our B&Bs or inns. We are more appealing to someone who may decide to build their dream home here in one of our several developments. This provides local construction jobs and other obvious benefits to our economy.”

Any property owner or renter of a commercial or residential property located in Polk County can nominate their own property or another property for the anual award as long as the property is visible by the general public from public roads or sidewalks.