DARLINGTON — The Hartsville Downtown Development Association is looking to expand its efforts and continue to expand Hartsville by seeking to join the Darlington County Economic Development Partnership.
Marty Pignone, of HDDA, said the purpose of his presentation to the partnership during its meeting Wednesday was to provide some thoughts on how the partnership could work with downtown development associations.
Partnership chairman Goz Segars said the partnership’s development role relates to industry and creating manufacturing jobs, while HDDA’s role is to create retail business.
Segars said HDDA wants to join the partnership so it can receive funding to offer incentives to incoming retailers. He said, however, initial funding isn’t likely to be an option.
“Some of it is natural for us to be a part of, (but) strictly speaking, economic development in the pure sense is about industrial job creation,” Segars said. “It’s not really typical that we bring in a retail organization.”
But partnership board member Roger Schrum, who works with Pignone at Sonoco, said creating retail opportunities is an important part of the partnership’s effort.
“We realize that having a vibrant commercial business climate within our county is equally as important as having industry here,” Schrum said. “We just need to find the right way it fits within our efforts.”
Partnership board member William Fleming said he’s in favor of retail development in Hartsville and Darlington, but he’s not sure it’s the partnership’s role to fund such projects.
“I don’t think anybody but the cities are going to be able to do economic development for retail and commercial,” Fleming said. “I think the fact that they’re out trying to find financing for incentives is admirable, and I wish them the best of luck.”
For HDDA to get a seat on the partnership board, Segars said, the board would first have to vote on it, then a county ordinance would be required.
The open position for director of the partnership also was discussed at the meeting.
Schrum, who is chairman of the personnel committee, said 75 applications have been narrowed down to 10. He said a decision is expected to made by August.
Board members also reached a unanimous decision on a logo for the partnership during Wednesday’s meeting.
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