The annual meeting of the Tryon Downtown Development Association is to be held on Monday evening, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. The entire Tryon community is invited to attend. President Judd Daniel will review the many successes TDDA has had over the past year. At this meeting, the new executive director, Jamie Carpenter, will be introduced. New officers and board members will be elected and plans for the coming year will be introduced. Tryon Town officials and staff have been invited and are expected to attend.

The highlight of the past year was the visit of nationally-recognized town planning consultant, Mr. Philip Walker. Walker spent three days in May in Tryon talking with over 40 leaders of Tryon about their hopes for downtown Tryon. He gathered information on Tryon’s strengths and challenges by having small group discussions, especially with business and property owners. Walker was also able to hear candid conversation at several social events held with Town of Tryon staff and officials as well as local citizens. The visit culminated in a public presentation to near-packed house at the Tryon Fine Arts Center auditorium.

Walker talked about why small towns are so vital and what we can do to protect them. He reviewed “Best Practices” which help to revitalize small towns. He congratulated the Town of Tryon and particularly the TDDA for all their progress. Recommendations made by Walker at this public event also provided the impetus for TDDA to hire its first full-time executive director and open an office in the downtown. He noted how difficult it is to accomplish TDDA goals without a paid person “who gets up every morning and says, ‘What I can I do today to make Tryon a great place?'”

The TDDA board and membership is very grateful to the Polk County Community Foundation for their timely gift of a Board Initiative Grant to allow TDDA to move forward. Without the sufficient funds provided by PCCF, the hiring of a director and the opening of an office would not have yet been possible. TDDA will continue to review and update plans for Tryon. Public input is always welcomed by the board and the executive director.

The social hour is from 6-7 p.m. The business meeting begins at 7 p.m. Please be considerate of local businesses when parking.

– Submitted by Wanda May