The Town of Tryon, which was a Small Town Main Street community, has achieved Main Street status.

Tryon was one of nine Small Town Main Street communities to achieve the upgraded status this month. Other cities and towns to recently be named Main Street communities in North Carolina include Ayden, Benson, Bessemer City, Cherryville, Elizabethtown, Valdese, Waxhaw and Williamston.

“The new Main Street communities will serve as role models for other municipalities interested in downtown revitalization,” said Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla III. “If you can show just one great building reuse in a downtown center, more revitalization projects follow and that means many new jobs.”

One of the requirements to achieve Main Street status is for each of the towns and cities to hire a permanent Main Street director and to organize their downtown revitalization work in accordance with the Main Street Four-Point® program.

Main Street communities will benefit from additional training and resources that the N.C. Main Street Center offers local Main Street directors.

Tryon Town Council discussed obtaining Main Street status during its June meeting where council discussed in detail the need for an employee to dedicate 20 hours per week to Main Street goals in order to achieve the Main Street status. The Tryon Downtown Development Association (TDDA) has received a grant from the Polk County Community Foundation to fund an executive director, who will handle the town’s Main Street duties. The director will be a full-time position for $50,000 annually.

Tryon recently hired a new community development director with some commissioners saying they were hesitant to hand the Main Street duties over to the TDDA. Community development director Paula Kempton was hired in June and one of her duties is grant administration.

Tryon’s former economic development director Crys Armbrust, told commissioners the designation as a Main Street community would open Tryon up to increased funding and increased support on an administrative level for planning and development.

TDDA’s Wanda May told commissioners that she sees Kempton’s position and the TDDA director as working very closely together.

The town and TDDA are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to specify what the town will do towards the program and what TDDA will do.

TDDA is set to hire its executive director this month.

In 2014, North Carolina Main Street downtown districts generated 248 new businesses, 110 business expansions and 1,011 new jobs, according to the N.C. Main Street program.

The nine new Main Street communities join 56 other active Main Street communities across the state.

For more information about the N.C. Main Street Center programming, visit www.nccommerce.com/MainStreet.