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Special March NEWS!

From the South Carolina Rural Summit held March 7-9, 2010

Director’s Award    City of Barnwell

Effective community and economic development programs require leadership that is willing to “develop” a plan, find creative ways to “finance” the plan and ultimately have the patience, endurance, and commitment to “work” the plan.  Four years ago, the City of Barnwell made a commitment to revitalize its central business district.

 Since then, Barnwell has developed and is implementing a master plan geared toward addressing marketing, retail recruitment/expansion, traffic/pedestrian flow, recreation/events, and project funding.  The City continues to be a work in progress, but visible progress can be seen in the more than 12 buildings that have been revitalized, the conversion of a former bank into a new city hall, upgraded and expanded Lemon Park Sports Complex, new city fountain and highly visible adoption of a city-wide branding campaign.

The impressive part of Barnwell’s past four years is their commitment to “take the bull by the horns” and get the job done on their own with little or no outside funding or assistance. Their “yes we can” attitude has earned The City of Barnwell the 2010 Director’s Award. 

The director’s award is a special award and is not given every year.  It is an award that allows the director of Rural Development at the South Carolina Department of Commerce (Maceo Nance) to give special recognition to a community/individual that has gone above and beyond in improving a community. 

 Pictured from left to right: Marty Martin (BCEDC), John Zawacki (City Admin), Lynn Cox (Tourism & Comm Dev/City) and Maceo Nance (Director of Rural Dev. Dept of Commerce)