The Buchanan City Commission has taken the final action needed to bring back the long dormant Downtown Development Authority.
At a meeting this week, commissioners held a second reading on an ordinance amendment that will allow the DDA to be reformed. City Manager Tony McGhee tells us it was disbanded about ten years ago, but should be functional again soon.
“The mayor has been working with staff to interview DDA applicants for the commission,” McGhee said. “We had 13 applicants for seven seats that are being interviewed last week and this week.”
Voting to appoint new DDA members should be May 27. McGhee says the reestablishment of the DDA comes at a good time.
“We’ll have our, hopefully our first DDA meeting in June and get them rolling. The nice thing is from our former DDA being here in the community, there’s a almost $400,000 nest egg of capital we’ve been sitting on for the new DDA to work with out of the gate. So between the work going on in the downtown and the resources they’ll have at their disposal, it should be a really exciting year next year here in Buchanan.”
McGhee says while the DDA was gone, the non-profit Live Buchanan handled some of its former duties. Now, the new DDA will resume all of those responsibilities.
The goal is to help promote economic development downtown. The DDA will be financed with a tax capture in the downtown area.
Commissioners Monday approved the reestablishment of the DDA with little comment after a public hearing.
