SPRUCE PINE — The Spruce Pine Town Council at its regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 22 discussed its takeaways from its joint meeting on Feb. 15 with the Mitchell County Commissioners, Bakersville Town Council and representatives from the Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce.
During her regular report, Spruce Pine Mayor Darla Harding brought up the meeting and asked for the council’s thoughts on what they took away from it.
The Feb. 15 joint meeting revolved mainly around what can be done to promote Mitchell County.
“I thought it was a great meeting that everyone involved in the county sat down together,” Harding said. “I agreed with most of it.”
Harding asked the council where the town might fit in with regards to promoting the county.
“I don’t know that there was any consensus other than we need to promote our county better with signage and basically clean up our roadways period,” said Council Member James Acuff.
Harding agreed with Acuff about the importance of signage and suggested that’s one way the town can contribute to the promotion of the area.
“Signage I think we have done some good on,” Harding said. “Not everyone has liked it all but I feel like that might be an area we can take care of our end on, as far as the town is concerned.”
Town Manager Darlene Butler followed by mentioning that much of the meeting seemed to focus on how the area can be promoted through technology.
Harding suggested that if the Mitchell Chamber could find a way to link all of the area government entities’ websites, it could make for a more seamless look at the area when visiting online.
Harding said developing comprehensive maps of the area could also be beneficial to county visitors. The maps, she added, could help point people in the direction of key local attractions.
She added that she routinely gets visitors asking for directions in her business in Spruce Pine.
Butler said she has heard of other towns and mainstreet organizations using maps that assign each building a number, rather than listing the business name so that maps don’t grow obsolete as quickly as businesses close or move.
Harding suggested that perhaps in the future, the Mitchell Chamber could take the lead on developing comprehensive maps in a rack card style to distribute to visitors.