Article is reprinted from Scottsville Monthly for April, 2008 - write Judi Price for sales info to advertise
Under the leadership of Brian LaFontaine, The Scottsville Community Chamber of Commerce has come back to life,
becoming very active in multiple ways. One of those ways is the organizing of the Economic Development Committee
(EDC) by chair person Kevin Quick. Kevin's business is Real Estate appraisals as well as sales.
What does an EDC do exactly? Well, they work on identifying what the community needs/wants and how to find
solutions to fill the voids. Or if you read the latest Arnett Muldrow town hired study about branding &
developing Scottsville, then apply what you read, you go for solutions to stop the leakage of sales because
locals are going 20 miles to Charlottesville to spend their money. People either don't know a product/service
can be purchased locally or a product actually can't be purchased locally. The EDC wants to claim that leakage,
in fact, they want to go as far as to get Charlottesvillians to come shop in Scottsville. The Town's Tourism committee has combined with the EDC in some ways, at least in talking about some common goals, one being walking
trails (finally).
The opportunities are good for the right type of businesses, a type of small town marketing. For example, one
could open a sort of music showcase concert business, one modeled after a cross between Gravity Lounge (Cville)
and The Birchmere (Alexandria, VA). With the right type of music acts. The right types of musicians/bands that
have followings, but are a little more alternative or custom genres oriented could draw a crowd from a large
radius to fill a void for music. This has been proven at a success rate quite a few times by Nancy Gill booking the Center for Arts and Nature on quite a few occasions with the once a-month packed house bluegrass jams as well as booking acts like the The Honey Dew Drops. The same goes for a movie theatre with the right types of movies. If the town
of Scottsville offers some entertainment of quality substances, even Charlottesville will travel to us 20 miles
to see something their own city isn't offering.
Scottsville needs to become a destination, a place where people come to enjoy fine dining, unique shopping,
especially for our own residents, so they are proud of Scottsville, and support local business and grow in their
own loyalty. That's exactly why the EDC decided to get involved in town politics. Someone from the committee has
attended every committee meeting they can so they can see how the town does business, then apply what is learned
to improve the community through either the town itself or through the Chamber.
One project that EDC is taking on full force is the creation of a Scottsville Saturday Farmer's Market. One
reason to have a Saturday market is because it was heard too many times that people are in their cars traveling
home from work while the Thursday afternoon market is going on. The EDC asked the town council to help support
what they saw as obvious leakage in action and the Government Services Committee accepted the EDC's proposal to
have the weekly fee waived. The EDC hired Green-minded permaculturist Michelle Maggiore who is co-owner of the www.SustainableScottsville.com web site and co-Facilitator of the Scottsville Barter network. She knows farmer
advocacy and is the perfect person for this job. Michelle states, "We have excellent farms and farmers in the
24590 zip code; I would like to see the Scottsville Tri-Cities area become well known for its food security. Our
farmers work hard, and feed us; I would very much like to help ensure that through this market, we can help
establish a customer base that will feed them as well."
There is a great current study about what it takes to have a successful Farmer's market in a small community
conducted by the University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture and they said clearly that a successful market
is held twice a week with Saturday being the most important day to be open. Look for the Saturday market to be
open the beginning of May until the end of October.
Concerning the building of the permanent Farmer's Market, the EDC requested the town to open up a Request for
Proposals (RFP) with sustainable requests to be a big portion of the building. The EDC believes that the more
Green artisan design/build you can go with it, the more people from outside the area will want to visit the
market when it is open for business. The EDC has acquired some designs for the structure and plans to display
them on the newly upcoming designed web site for the Chamber of Commerce.
The upcoming remade thought-out web site for the Chamber of Commerce and the EDC will be heavy in the community's
involvement. This web site will embrace the community hard and show a variety of creative, economic, and just
plain local outlets of what Scottsville offers (from a list of bands in the area with songs you can play all the
way to business as usual, but better). It will be full of articles and pointers pertaining to Scottsville.
EDC Member Stephan Hawranke, who started 330 with John Keaton (also a member) is thinking about what to do with
the old Dew Drop Inn building that he purchased months ago. One of his ideas is to split it into two dwellings,
being a place to live upstairs by someone who wants to run their own business downstairs. The EDC wants to
identify all of the rentals available for someone who wants to open a business in Scottsville and having a
database of info such as owners, availability, contact info, square footage, rent prices could help an outsider
get information that can be constructive to their needs. This will be a one-stop place for pertinent information
to a prospective business owner, well publicized, and readily available online.
Cynthia Bruce, co-owner of High Meadows is learning how to make walking trails with others and wants a few made
around town. She is organizing this along with Brenda Hyson and a few others. 330 Club is doing a fund raiser to repair and paint
the Town Center exterior, a good sprucing up. The EDC would like to promote the implementation of wireless internet access in the
downtown area, a free hookup for the community. One of the town's committees has talked about the same service
Flat out, this is the goal of the committee: To bring forth a long-range, sustainable plan for economic development focusing on three components: increasing
merchant activity in the downtown and uptown Scottsville area, increasing the greater Scottsville area community
spirit and support, lobbying for/support of increasing smart, controlled growth - both in the residential and
commercial sectors of Scottsville. In creating the specific plans for each of these three components, the
committee should identify broader issues with the control of the community that are currently negatively
affecting economic development, and create a strategy to build a 'we are in this together' attitude in the area.
