Kerry Cowley: What once was a charming town is crumbling at a very fast rate

Agree, that this once charming town cared for its locals and is crumbling at a very fast rate. Conway is missing out on addressing priorities, such as providing worker housing or bathrooms for residents and visitors. The town needs a persuasive holistic vision to imagine “Historic Downtown” as an anchor for the community that would welcome and accommodate the arts, fine dining, recreation and retail. This could happen by concurrently investing and incentivizing a more diversified locality-based resident and visitor experience. The Majestic Theater area is currently under-improved, as is the Center Conway location with the departure of the Town Office. This broader focus may open up new housing opportunities for workers to improve quality of life. To improve on charm, you could explore opportunities for “Public/Private/Partnerships”, such as a multi-purpose Pavilion at Whitaker Woods that could accommodate ice skating in the winter while also serving as a music venue in warmer months. Key improvement criteria should be set to 1) enhance quality of life, 2) improve connectiveness to the broader community, and 3) maintain historic charm, in a manner that is scalable for growth impacts. Our locals and visitors are starting to feel the cumulative effect of being "nickeled and dimed, compounded by less than thoughtful encroachment on our values and assets. This has led to a continued loss of "ownership" to maintain and “improve” the community. As we re-imagine our future governance structure, perhaps we could concurrently pulse the community to set our growth compass. One should be clearly connected to the other…form over function!