Toulon council discusses development
By JOHN A. BALLENTINE
For The Prairie News
TOULON – The Toulon City Council participated in a lengthy discussion and presentation concerning economic development at its meeting Monday.
Kyle Howard, a Toulon native who now lives in St. Charles, gave a presentation outlining the possibility of Toulon developing its downtown with new businesses in storefronts that are currently vacant. Howard has been aiding with management of Julie’s Cafe Market on Main in Toulon.
Howard said he would like to obtain locally made products, such as beef, pork and produce, “and take that to build off of.” Besides selling locally, Howard envisions selling Stark County products to other areas of the state.
Howard’s proposal is to work with Toulon’s city council to develop and implement short- and long-term economic development plans.
Howard initially was asking the city council what goals they would have to develop the city’s economy. He suggested filling every storefront with a business, plus trying to recruit a sizable business to the Toulon area, such as some sort of manufacturing.
Another problem to overcome, Howard said, is to attract people to the businesses and market those businesses to other areas to expand the customer base.
Mayor Larry Hollis said the current project of revitalizing Main Street would help “sell” Toulon to people who would be business owners or customers. Hollis added that a new school building would help attract people to the area to reside here.
After the presentation and discussion, the council initially decided to have Howard concentrate with filling the storefronts with businesses.
In other action, the board learned that the revised code book still requires some work; the lift station project has permits ready to sign to move it forward for installation; and the Saw n Logs quote to remove two trees at 515 N. Franklin Street and 103 W. Clinton Street will be revised to include another tree on Turner Avenue.
The original quote for two trees was $1,450.
