the devil in the details

I won't be naming anything or anybody in particular but as it turns out there is a lot of corruption going on in Dyer County right now on many different levels.  Much of it involves COVID relief money in the form of PPP grants/loans.  Several different types of businesses such as government, education and religion are under the microscope.  These things have divided our community times a trillion.  People steal, all the time.  But as a US taxpayer, I'm pissed at this fraud.  Where was the oversight?  I am not a county tax payer since I don't own property but I think that the commission did the right thing by purchasing the property and consolidating  many services in one area.  The essentials are still on court square and those properties have been improved tremendously.  There is a growing movement of folks who seek to offer a lot of services in downtown Dyersburg.  I can tell you from my research for an art gallery there simply is nothing decent to be had at ground level except for lawyer's offices....except for South Mill.

I became friends with Chris Donaldson through his mother.  His imagination and creativity combined with that of his sister Amy astound me.  They jumped on the wagon early with co-working spaces which was "a little ahead of our time" for Dyersburg but it turned out beautifully as an office for Tencom and The Mill Workspace. The Mill is packed with gadgets to record, televise and anything else you could want.  Alan Ingalls is a premier videographer who works with Chris closely.  Plus! Get this.  It's across the street from my crack store Pennington Seed and Supply.  There are a couple of boutique type places over by the feed store.  

I remember watching Chris giving life to this dream of his.  I was schooled by him through a Haslam program which was designed to teach folks about taking an idea and making it happen.  What's your idea?  Who is your target audience?  How much will it cost?  At the time I was still at the hospital and had sick parents so that never happened.   

If the locals want to make things work, they can.  Grant money is available and I'm not talking PPP.  Get you a good grant writer (social worker) and define your goal.  Then pitch yourself and wrassle' with the economics of it.  One of the things that saved Chris a ton of money is that he did the reconstruction himself supervising every detail with a vision.  Every time I went, it looked better.  It was there that I met the founder of Buff City Soap, a lawyer who just started just making soap in his garage in Shelby County.  That business is now nationally franchised and he has moved onto boards.  They are to die for beautiful!

I think small in business.  Support your local merchants who are trying to make Dyersburg a better place to live ^j^