At a work session May 19, the Dillon Town Council and members of the Dillon Economic Advisory Committee discussed the committee’s role and priorities.

The town reestablished the committee last year and heard an update on its work at a March work session. Committee member Sean Ugrin told the council in March about four recommendations the committee had for the town, which included hiring a grant writer, allowing people not on the council to sit on the Dillon Urban Renewal Authority board, improving signage to advertise town core businesses and creating better connectivity between the town core and Dillon Ridge Marketplace.

The Town Council has discussed all of the recommendations and shown support for all but the change to the makeup of the urban renewal authority board. At the May 19 work session, Ugrin and other committee members reiterated their support for those recommendations and clarified that, with the urban renewal authority board change, they did not envision a board with no council members, but instead a “hybrid” board with council members, business owners, town staff and other community members.

Committee members also said that their recommendation to add an LED sign to the east entrance of the town was focused on somehow replacing the sign that is currently blank, not specifically on replacing it with an LED sign. At a previous meeting, the council postponed a vote on adding an LED sign and asked staff to pursue other options, like temporary vinyl signs.

Trace Faust, a consultant who helped facilitate Dillon’s community meetings and subsequent discussions, asked the committee members about how they view the committee’s role. Chair Andrii Iwashko said he views the committee as a funnel that takes input from the business community, distills it and presents it to the council.

Faust also asked council members what they would like to see the committee prioritize. Members gave different ideas and eventually agreed on four areas, or what Faust called “buckets,” including improved signage to promote businesses, cross-community learning, grant research and writing, and ideas for improving winter economic figures for the town.

Mayor Joshua Samuel provided the idea of cross-community learning, which he explained was learning from other towns and cities about the best practices for utilizing economic advisory committees.

Committee and council members expressed a desire to have more consistent communication between the entities, and Faust recommended the committee come back before the council in July to give more updates.