This week the Planning Commission for Hartsville is having a work session with members of the city staff to discuss momentum on the comprehensive plan. As part of that meeting there will be a report from the Selling Hartsville initiative. The report is going to be a short summary that will sound much like this:
Hartsville, the Art of Good Living
The Hartsville Planning Commission went to work on an update of the comprehensive plan for the city more than a year ago. Updates to comprehensive plans are required by the State for a variety of purposes, sometimes funding of specific programs. The Planning Commission took its task seriously and came up with not only an updated plan, which involved input from a wide variety of citizens, but with a vision for what Hartsville might become. The City Council has adopted this plan and has said it was going to use this plan as one of the major tools for moving the city forward.
One element of the updated comprehensive plan is something called “Selling Hartsville.” It happens that as the planning commission task forces were working on aspects of the plan other groups, citizens and gatherings were also working on a concept of selling Hartsville. A major impetus for the “Selling Hartsville” idea stemmed from the fact that Hartsville is losing a large number of potential residents to neighboring communities, like Florence. Last summer, Harris DeLoach, CEO of Sonoco, told the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce All-Member Lunch of the large number of people hired by Sonoco over the past couple of years who opted for Florence, rather than even thinking about Hartsville. Now, Hartsville is never going to be Florence (and a lot of us feel good about that) but there is a strong concern when more than 100 families with incomes averaging $80,000 decide to live somewhere else. And, it turns out that a number of families from Progress Energy, Coker College, Carolina Pines and other organizations also have chosen places other than Hartsville; often without even considering Hartsville. It is apparent that if we want our community to remain strong, vibrant and vital, we have to address this issue.
Several months ago The Byerly Foundation hired Carolina Marketing and Public Relations, a Charlotte firm with strong ties to South Carolina and Hartsville, help us begin to address how to sell Hartsville better. In a nutshell, their conclusion was that Hartsville has a lifestyle that many people are looking for around the country. They even pointed out that the lifestyle is being created in new communities that have none of the authenticity that is inherent in our 110-year-old community. They also noted that we should probably not keep this lifestyle a secret and that it might take a concerted, community-wide effort to tell the story and make it resonate so that people who should hear it, do hear it, before they have made rash decisions to live in other places.
They had conversations with people from all demographics representing a wide variety of the things that make Hartsville such a unique Southern-South Carolina community. From those conversations they developed the logo they believe encompasses the major sales message of our community. The message: Hartsville – The Art of Good Living.
Over the next few weeks and months we will continue having conversations about how to implement this sales message. Who are those we hope will hear this message about the special lifestyle that makes Hartsville different from many other communities around our State? Certainly, we want those whose jobs may be bringing them to the area to hear about Hartsville. I think it will also help those of us who are already here, recognize there is really something special about this lifestyle we call Hartsville.
www.hartsvillesc.com
www.byerlyfoundation.org
Another conversation with a visionary entrepreneur who puts his money where his heart is sets off more sparks about a downtown that can not only be quaint but thriving. 
