State of the City (Hartsville) == ???

Mayor Mel Pennington is working to establish a new tradition for the city of Hartsville, an annual STATE OF THE CITY address by the Mayor. This seems like a really good idea from a community building and community thinking perspective.

1 -- It gives an opportunity for citizens to stop and contemplate the big question of what is the current STATE of the city.

2 -- It gives the Mayor an opportunity to focus on those areas that he or someday she consider most important for positive changes to the state of the City.

3 -- It provides an hour or so to concentrate on the bigger picture of the STATE of the city rather than on all those daily items that generally plague big-picture thinking because they have to be accomplished NOW.

As a blogger what I would like most to accomplish by a post like this is to get responses to the question -- What do you think is the state of the city?

** In a conversation this morning one business owner told me he gets a very real sense that the State of the City is turning in a positive direction. He is feeling like there is forward momentum.

** So, what is it that you are thinking when it comes to the current State of Hartsville?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You get an opportunity on Monday night, March 7 at 6 p.m. to hear Mayor Pennington discuss this question at the Performing Arts Center on the Coker College campus. Following that presentation there will be a reception for the new city manager, Natalie Ziegler.