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The Cleveland Downtown Development Authority met on Thursday, Oct. 14, and voted on a chair, vice chair, meetings dates and discussed bylaws.
The six-member board voted Gary Adkins as chair and Sam Pelletier as vice chair. Other members of the board include Terry Goodger, Ward Gann, Bradley Greene and Kevin Stanley.
Board members voted to meet the second Thursday of the first month of each quarter (January, April, July and October), and have called meetings as needed.
The group set up a subcommittee of Adkins and Stanley to work on bylaws that can be recommended to the board for adoption.
The DDA was first created in 1992, said City Administrator Tom O’Bryant, with the purpose of looking at issues in town and assist Truett McConnell University with bonds.
“The DDA was established, the boundaries were established, and it covered part of town, but it also went east to the Truett campus,” O’Bryant said. “There was talk about some fo their activities, but not a whole lot was done at the time.”
In 2006, there was some interest in downtown improvements, so the DDA was reactivated, O’Bryant said. He added that TMU needed some additional bonds for additional improvements. They met for several years before going inactive once again.
At a March 9, 2020, Cleveland City Council meeting, O’Bryant told council members the Cleveland DDA would start meeting again after a four-year hiatus. Last year he said the goal of the DDA is help the city in a community and economic development capacity.
“The overall objectives are to increase jobs, investment and income and to help enhance the quality of life for the Cleveland community,” he said at the time.