By Natalie M. ZeiglerCity Manager
I often communicate with other City Managers and economic development officials who have the same goals we have in local government: supporting and growing our communities. Many times we talk about what our cities need to attract residents and visitors.
More than anything else, healthy, thriving cities must have residents who are engaged with their community, who want to work toward making it a better place. This is the reason why the City of Hartsville website, www.hartsvillesc.gov, lists local volunteering opportunities, both in the boards, committees and commissions which support local government’s effectiveness, and in the nonprofit organizations promoting the needs of Hartsville residents from education to food security, personal development and more. If people of different backgrounds, young and old, feel that they cannot make a difference in a community, they have no incentive to stay.
Successful cities also need businesses and organizations willing to invest their resources locally. Coker College is providing a prime example of this along East Carolina Avenue these days, where it is building its new student housing village. This, combined with the nearby under-construction DeLoach Center athletics facility, has promise for moving the college closer to a greater enrollment and community impact.
The Duke Energy Foundation, Byerly Foundation and Community Foundation for a Better Hartsville are also making a major commitment to our economic development with the establishment of the Duke Energy Center for Innovation. Thanks to their contributions, Hartsville has a program taking a unique, proactive approach to economic development, providing tech-focused startup businesses with the resources and the knowledge to grow and to create jobs locally.
Increasingly, the communities in this state which attract businesses and people have one major feature in common: vibrant, welcoming downtowns. More and more municipalities are working to create business districts full of shops and restaurants, places which invite people to walk around and explore, and which have full slates of special events. The City of Hartsville has been hard at work in recent years bringing events downtown. The Screen on the Green series pulls in excellent crowds, most recently at last Saturday’s showing of “Brave.” The Thursdays on College street concerts, created last year, will offer four dates this fall.
As more programs develop among cities for the revitalization of their business districts, the refurbishment of our storefronts and the creation of event attractions only become more crucial. Downtown Hartsville’s significance is why it is the focus of our city’s under-development Master Plan, along with our entryways. Just like our people and our businesses, our downtown always needs effort invested into it. The work of making the City of Hartsville a dynamic and attractive city is never complete, and that may be one of the greatest things about a community: that there is always room for growth and improvement.
