The good news: Hendersonville City Council agreed to stop funding Downtown Hendersonville, Inc.
The bad news: The funds will be diverted to a Main Street program to be created in city government.
Funding for DHI ran over $100,000 annually. DHI served as a promoter of the downtown area. Reasons council gave for the takeover include oversight and consistency.
DHI Board President Brandon Yelverton shared:
“No member of DHI’s board was given the opportunity to comment, nor were any of the downtown merchants given any notification of the potential abrupt ending of our organization’s funding,” he said in an email comment. “DHI has been, and continues to be, the primary promoter of downtown Hendersonville. The city council’s movement toward increasing the size of our local government by replacing our board maintained director with a city employee reflects the ‘big government’ sentiment of our city council.”