AGENDA #3a(2)
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Dear Councilmembers, |
5-3-2007 |
When the Spring Football game was held on Saturday, April 14th the town seemed to be packed with visitors from out of town here to celebrate the beginning of the Butch Davis era and other events going on around town that day. It was great to see all the visitors around campus and beyond in Chapel Hill.
The next day, however, they were almost all gone. For the most part they had not stayed in our hotels, eaten in our restaurants, or shopped in our stores.
The reason? There was nothing going on Sunday to keep them in Chapel Hill.
Over a year after the cancellation of Apple Chill I think it is time to build a new event or series of events to build a bridge from Saturday to Sunday and create a new spring weekend to celebrate Chapel Hill.
We should have a program that both brings in money from out of town and allows those who live in our community to come together.
In my attached Chapel Hill Herald column (Attachment 1) from early April I suggest one such possible event but it’s really just one idea. I think the combined creative minds of our community could pursue that or any number of other options to develop an exciting weekend of events that would spur economic development and community pride.
With a new police chief and economic development director we are particularly well equipped to take a step back, look at what went wrong with Apple Chill and develop some new ideas for replacing it that learn from the lessons of years past.
Thank you for your consideration,
Tom Jensen
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