Main Street l Reputations precede us
Big reputation, big reputation ... you and me we got big reputations, And you heard about me.”
– Taylor Swift
As most of you loyal readers know by now, Crystal River and Citrus County leaders have spent a significant part of the month of January in and out of the State Capitol in Tallahassee. With the Florida Legislature in Session this is our time to make our wants and needs known.
By some stroke of divine providence, all of the entities I am involved with lined up to where I spent an entire week in Tallahassee this month.
I started the week representing the Florida Downtown Association and Crystal River Main Street at Florida Main Street Day. The next day I put on my tourism focused hats and participated in Visit Florida Day. Finally, closed the week with Citrus County Day.
I should preface all of this and let you know that I spent several years working in the Capitol during and after college. This was 20 years ago and back then very few people knew where Citrus County was, where we wanted to go and how we could ever get there.
Boy, have things changed! Our reputations have grown immensely.
We all know Citrus County isn’t the largest county in our state, we don’t have large Fortune 500 businesses headquartered here. By all accounts, we should just be a bystander in the Legislative process. But we are not.
We are known in Tallahassee, we are respected and we are getting attention statewide. We really have moved up and have big reputations to uphold.
So why does any of this matter? Because just like anything else, Citrus County has to fight for tax dollars up against large communities like Jacksonville and Tampa. It somewhat blows my mind that there are projects that will be funded here in Citrus because we have asked louder than places in metropolitan cities.
You’ve all heard about the Kings Bay Riverwalk and so has everyone in the Legislature. Think about how many statewide projects are looking for funding right now but because of the voices we carried to Tallahassee, the final funding for our Riverwalk is getting in place.
As someone who has been involved with “The Process” my entire life, I can’t tell you the joy and pride it brings me to see our reputation around the state. Our little community encapsulates the definition of small but mighty and it’s the most valuable thing we own.
Meredith Linley is executive director of Crystal River Main Street. Email her at meredith@crystalrivermainstreet.com.