PBA will participate in Small Business Saturday, November 28th by hosting the gift wrap and a passport for the day. Pick yours up at the Welcome Center. Membership dues will be due in January of 2021. Please go to the website Shoppittsboro.com to join again. You’ll also be receiving a reminder email with an invoice attached. From the Board October was The Annual Meeting: Elections Nominations and Election to the Board: There were three people nominated, Pam Fulk, Scott Dunham, and Jacques Dufour. A SurveyMonkey was sent to all the members of PBA and votes tallied from those that returned their votes. All three, Pam, Scott, and Jacques were reelected for another term. That means your Board for 2021 will be: Pam Fulk, Maria Parker-Lewis, Jamie Hitmer, Cindy Schmidt, Scott Dunham, Jacques Dufour, Mary DeMare, and Stephanie Olnes. Treasurers Report Treasurers switched about mid-year from Mary DeMare from New Horizons to Jamie Hitmer from Fish Window Cleaning. The switch was complicated by COVID and not being able to complete the switch in person. PBA started the year with $2,430.36 and has $1,773.41 at the end of September. Not having First Sunday has impacted the organization. Events Committee All events for the year were cancelled EXCEPT the upcoming TREE LIGHTING, which will be virtual. Phillips Tree Farm has wonderfully donated the live tree this year for in front of the Courthouse. The tree lighting will be on Zoom and Facebook Live on November 22nd. Santa will be in a life-sized snow globe for pictures from car-rider line from 2-5 pm the same day. PBA is looking for sponsors for the event. Contact the PBA at our website: shoppittsboro.com if you’d like your business featured during the event. More plans are being made for the Tree Lighting so follow PBA on Facebook to keep up! If you’d like to join the Events […]

Pittsboro cancelled October First Sunday PBA is planning Holly Days – stay tuned for how it will look in the current environment. As always we’ll be coordinating with Mainstreet Pittsboro and the town of Pittsboro. If you’d like to contribute ideas or dollars, email PBA. The October MEMBERSHIP MEETING will be Wednesday, October 14th at 9 am – on Zoom Chris Kennedy, Pittsboro Town Manager Michael Fiocco introduced the new Pittsboro town manager, Chris Kennedy. Chris is a 10th generation North Carolinian, his family wandered around from Moore City to Robbins, Gilford, and Greensboro. He grew up in Welcome along with at least one other town in rural NC. Chris received a bachelors in Fine Arts and Econ from Davidson College in 2010. He earned a Masters of Public Administration and a Masters of City/Urban Community and Regional Planning, both in 2012 at Auburn in Alabama. He worked in his field at Southern Pines for almost 8 years, constantly expanding his responsibilities and experiences. And now out of the 40-50 candidates, he’s Pittsboro’s town manager. Chris believes in Creating Place. Your town is what you make it. He wants to make it the best. He’s on the board of Mainstreet Pittsboro. He was invited to tour any of the PBA members places, specifically Carolina Tiger Rescue and the Chatham County Museum. With two weeks on the job, everything in his inbox has an exclamation point, so with what he knows now, his initial priorities are: 1. hire the new police chief, town clerk, and town engineer, (he needs the people to get the following work done) 2. Sewer capacity and Water quality, 3. UDO and town hall development, along with everything else! The construction of the circle is continuing with utility work. Eagles Gas station is back under construction after a minor delay. […]

Summer Shop Local Campaign The Pittsboro Business Association would like to hold a summer Shop Local series to promote our member businesses. Our Events Committee has come up with an idea and we need your feedback as soon as possible so that we can get this to our Promotion Committee if there is enough interest to carry it out. THE CONCEPT Bi-weekly themes would be created and communicated to member businesses. Each business would create their own event or promotion based on these themes. Themes could be “Beach Week” , “Back to School” or general, fun themes possibly based on “National” themes like “National Chocolate Day”. The PBA would market these themes on our website and social media. Businesses would promote events on their own sites and social media pages. FILL OUT FORM. (or copy and paste: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGHbJtyHc0v5TC2PiS05EdLK7I_A0jGiyD1VwgnESczgtZYw/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1) Pittsboro cancelled August First Sunday The membership survey had several interesting results. It was sent to 55 members and ~ 16 non-members. 23 responses. (Many thanks to those who responded.) Why be a member of PBA? 1/2 thought together we can bring more customers to individual businesses and 1/2 said they support local organizations and events. Respondents wanted PBA to: (in order of preference) (ties have the same number) 1 hold events that draw people to the local area, 2 market their business,  2 advertise outside the local area,  2 communicate with local governments about business issues and  3 provide opportunities for local business people to gather. Respondents spend marketing time and money: 1 website 2 emails 2 print materials 2 e-newsletter 3 Facebook   Prize winners were: 2 tickets for Carolina Tiger Rescue: Lorie Baker Fish Window Cleaning: Kasandra Granger Copy of 1870s Ramsey map from Chatham County Historical Association: Seth Wood   The August MEMBERSHIP MEETING will be Wednesday, August 12th at […]

June First Sunday and July Summerfest are cancelled. IF there is an August First Sunday: The PBA will have a table at First Sunday to promote the PBA and PBA members. It will be staffed by a Board member and a PBA member. You can contact PBA to volunteer, a list will be kept so everyone gets a chance. –If you staff it, you will be promoting both PBA and your business (for free). WE NEED YOUR COUPONS!! and brochures for the table. The staff at the table will hand out your coupons and promote all PBA businesses – if we have your materials! Drop off materials at New Horizons Downtown anytime. –There will be dog treats and a water bowl and kid treats at the PBA table as well. The JUNE MEMBERSHIP MEETING will be Wednesday, June 10th at 9 am The May Meeting: From the Speaker-Alyssa Byrd The May PBA Membership Meeting was held over Zoom. We heard from Alyssa Byrd from Chatham County Economic Development Corporation about COVID-19 programs and the folks who were on Zoom. Programs: SBA EIDL (Economic Impact Disaster Loan): https://www.sba.gov/page/disaster-loan-applications Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/assistance-for-small-businesses NC Rapid Recovery Loan: https://ncrapidrecovery.org/ Chatham Loan Fund: being finalized. Call the EDC. Reopening Guidance We created a guide available at reopeninghelp.com. SURVEYS: Regional Skills Analysis Rebuilding our workforce and quickly adapting to our new “normal” is important. All of the businesses in Chatham can help us by completing the Regional Skills Analysis survey conducted by RTI in partnership with Wake County Economic Development. By taking the survey, you’ll be entered to win a gift card to help support a local small business. Complete the survey: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5443837/Chatham-County Triangle J Council of Governments How has your small business been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic? Please take five minutes to share your experience with Triangle J Council of Governments. Your response will help us understand issues […]