Greenfield has been celebrating some new businesses lately, and there are more to come.
City manager Todd Wilkin reported at this week’s council meeting that since the last meeting, there have been two businesses welcomed: Greener Pastures Plant Boutique and Apothecary in the 300 block of Jefferson Street and Backyard Primitive Design in a new incubator space in the 200 block of Jefferson Street.
Additionally, there are more grand opening celebrations coming: Harvest Dairy Bar on June 28 at 10 a.m., K9 Confetti on July 6 at 10 a.m., Posey’s Plaza on July 13 at 11 a.m., and Weastec Greenfield on July 14. Also, there are three new businesses opening up in the incubator space next month. Those grand openings will be announced once they are set.
Wilkin said that in around a 30-day period, there will have been nine new business grand openings celebrated in Greenfield.
“It’s a big deal and an exciting time,” he said. “We love the fact that entrepreneurs are taking the risk and they’re wanting to step out and open an opportunity here in Greenfield,” Wilkin said. “We will continue to support and promote that atmosphere.”
In other news, June’s citizen of the month is Carla Jett. She was chosen for the award because she has been a “valuable partner” with the village for several years, dedicates much of her time to creating things to promote Greenfield and has devoted her business to serving the village.
This month’s awards for employee of the month is going to two police officers, Mark Hamilton and Jay Beatty, for their courageous efforts. The officers jumped into Paint Creek to help rescue several kids in trouble in the water. Without the quick action of the officers, the fate of the kids may have been different, Wilkin said.
The Home and Garden Award for Most Patriotic Home was bestowed the Delbert and Marilyn Mitchell home on South Street. “Thank you for taking pride in your home,” Wilkin said. “We know this is a small gesture, but we appreciate your care.”
Wilkin also reported on the first outdoor movie night of the summer, which was sponsored by Adena. It was hosted by Grow Greater Greenfield and the Presbyterian church. Homeland Credit Union will be sponsoring the next movie night, which is set for July 23.
The city manager commented on the Facade Improvement Program and continued improvements to downtown buildings. A theme across a lot of the buildings is the exposure of glass, transom-like windows that have been hidden for decades behind fake facades.
“It’s good to see this work happening,” Wilkin said. These are businesses that are part of the first round of grant funding to improve buildings in the downtown, a lot of which began late last year but had to be put off until winter passed. It’s work that is continuing to make positive improvement in the community, Wilkin said, and something that will attract more to come.
Wilkin also reported that progress continues with building a workforce development strategy across the county. Something to come from it is the creation of a Workforce Leadership Council that is tasked with making the mission, vision and goals. A product of village council, Wilkin said, is a program called ACCESS (Alignment of Community Connections for Employer and Student Success). Tim Dettwiller is heading up the program.
The endeavor was born from an industry roundtable meeting more than a year ago regarding how other entities in the state are successfully bridging the gaps between education and industry. Since that meeting, business, community and educational entities have come together to build the strategy that will grow a vibrant workforce in Highland County.
This Friday will be Greenfield’s First Friday event from 4-8 p.m. The Jesters will provide live entertainment on the City Hall lawn. There will be food trucks along with vendors set up on the sidewalk.
A community calendar program has been purchased, Wilkin said, and is tentatively scheduled to launch later in the summer. It will take several public meetings to get everything coordinated and set up, Wilkin said, but the calendar will be a separate website with links on the village’s Facebook page and website. A code will be created for everyone to use.
There is a community calendar on the village website, but it’s only as good as the input received to populate it, Wilkin said. Based on “scraping” technology, the new program will set up a calendar for any entity in Greenfield and when an entity adds an event to their calendar, the village’s calendar will pick that up. The code will be posted throughout the village and will be a quick way to view all the events on the village’s calendar. Other entities creating a calendar will also receive their own code relating to their calendar.
Last week the village met with a developer regarding development of the quarry, the city manager said. It is something he said is hoped to generate momentum regarding opportunity at the quarry.
There will be a council finance committee meeting on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in the council chambers on the third floor of the City Building. The meeting is open to the public.
Greenfield Village Council meets in regular session the first and third Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers on the third floor of the City Building. With July’s first Monday being a holiday, July’s work session meeting will happen on July 11. The first meeting of the month is set as a council work session.
Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the village of Greenfield.
