Photo courtesy of Town of Buchanan
By Matt de Simone
Buchanan Town Council met Monday night at Town Hall to learn more about what went into July’s Reggae by the River. Adam Beason, who performed with Lazy Man Dub Band at the July event, gave a rundown of the events services and deliverables to council. Some of the items Beason presented included an overhead map of the event’s layout, maintenance features, promotional materials, and vendors.
In terms of response figures, Beason said that this year’s Reggae by the River was “one of the largest response (the festival) has ever seen.” He went over all of the social media outlets and printed materials where people could learn more about the event.
The event’s logo and branding will now be available for the town to use moving forward. Council member Rose Jeter suggested the logo design for the July festival could be rebranded for seasonal town events in the future.
Beason applauded the town’s support and the volunteers who were able to help out with the festival on short notice and noted the positive feedback received at the event and “saw a lot of smiling faces.”
“The festival was a real big success,” Buchanan Mayor Tristan Harris said. “Any minor difficulties were quickly figured out and everyone else I talked to were really happy with how it turned out.”
Council was treated to a promotional video produced by Sky High Reggae recapping this past year’s Reggae by the River music festival.
Harris noted that next year’s festival will have more promotion for the event reaching out to a wider area in order to make the event more well known. Council member James Eubank suggested incorporating town restaurants and businesses when promoting the event giving visitors an opportunity to explore Buchanan throughout the weekend of the music festival.
Newly appointed Town Manager Angela Lawrence gave her first report to council after her official first day on the job last Tuesday.
“I’m happy to be here,” Lawrence said. “I appreciate everyone’s confidence and trust in moving the town forward and building on past successes.”
Lawrence shared that information about the upcoming Buchanan Town Council candidate forum is forthcoming. Information will soon be sent to candidates this week. She mentioned the budget for Christmas lights at Town Park and suggested giving extra funds to volunteers in order to purchase lights and storing them properly. The mayor made note of Lawrence’s suggestion and said that council can discuss the matter at an upcoming work session. Council member Jamie Manspile made an additional suggestion about putting more electric infrastructure in Town Park.
Harris asked for volunteers to bring a plan to the upcoming work session so council can better “flesh out” the plans for this year’s Festival of Lights.
Lawrence also noted the importance of enforcing property code violations and noted that she will include some information about that in her report next month.
Before motioning to adjourn Monday’s meeting, Manspile shared that he and Town Council are happy with the hiring of Lawrence and looks forward to what she and council can do for the town moving forward.
The next meeting of Buchanan Town Council is October 15.
