The Partnership for Floyd will be celebrating 20 years of service to our community with a FREE ice cream social at the end of the Floyd Earth Day in the Park, April 20, 3 – 4 pm, following the Appalachian Species Giant Puppet Parade. – The following article first appeared (with small edits) in the Floyd Virginia Magazine visitor’s guide, Spring/Summer 2023 edition.
The Partnership for Floyd (PFF) is preparing to celebrate 20 years of civic work in Floyd. Most recognized for its development of the Warren G. Lineberry Park and the Park-to-Library and Dodd Creek Trails, the non-profit citizen group has also hosted Earth Day and Health Fair events, held fundraisers for its projects and was influential in revitalization of downtown Floyd through government grants and volunteer labor.
The Partnership was founded in January 2004 as a spin-off from the Old Jacksonville Cemetery committee, which was formed after the Hotel Floyd property purchase by Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers to assure that the cemetery grounds adjacent to the hotel would be protected during hotel construction. It brought together citizens, business owners and town and county officials with a vision to preserve and enhance what makes Floyd special and to promote tourism, community development and town improvements.
The late Sam Moore, who was the founding PFF Vice President and a past employee of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), first brought up the idea of applying for a TEA-21 transportation enhancement grant through VDOT. This grant was approved and used to build sidewalks, including a pathway from the hotel to downtown Locust Street, which served to link up hotel patrons with downtown activities and businesses, including with Floyd’s famous Friday Night Jamboree at The Floyd Country Store.
At the time the Partnership was forming, Lydeana Hylton Martin was working for the New River Valley Regional Commission, a commission that identifies needs and seeks funding to meet those needs. She, a Floyd native, attended an early PFF meeting and offered her expertise, walking members through the grant process. Later that year, she was hired for the newly created position in Floyd of Director of Economic Community Development, which she holds to this day.
In an October 2004 Roanoke Times story about Martin’s Floyd position, she commended the volunteer planning work that make grants possible. “It’s amazing to me, the private citizens that are volunteering their time. To me, they are the heroes that lets the grant writer tell that story.”
The 20% local matching funds for the TEA-21 grant didn’t deter the PFF from its goal. House meetings, a public hearing and antique auction fundraisers were held. Wall and Bauers donated a portion of the Hotel Floyd property to help meet the local matching funds for the grant.
“We were novices and really busy in the beginning,” said Bauers, a founding member of the PFF who initially served at the Partnership’s Project Manager.
As Project Manager, Bauers began looking at other communities that were successful in getting redevelopment grants and talking to their town managers. She learned that governments need non-profit community partners to qualify for grants. The group applied for and were accepted as Virginia Main Street Affiliate through Richmond’s Department of Housing and Community Development and members began attending Main Street training events and workshops.
Securing the TEA grant and the Main Street Main Street Affiliate designation was followed by efforts to secure downtown Floyd as a designated historic district. Historic preservation officials from Roanoke and Richmond presented an informative historic buildings rehabilitation tax credit workshop. With the help of VA Tech architect students, The Old Church Gallery and D.C. architects Cy Markeses and Belynda Reeder (who were working on the green design for the Hotel Floyd), local historian Kathleen Ingoldsby headed up the committee to catalogue every historic structure in town, over 200.
“The important thing is that the history of the people who helped build the town and the buildings they created are fully described in the document, and that record has gone on to create the Historical Society’s popular Walking Tour and is available for other historical documents and grants,” Ingoldsby said.
The national and state historic designation made it possible for the town to qualify and eventually receive a Virginia Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The Partnership worked closely with the Town Council and Clerk and to explore options for how to use the CDBG grant funds. To encourage input from the community, the Woman’s Club hosted an information panel of eleven local businesses and agencies that was moderated by Martin. Martin also reviewed citizen survey results at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Mass mailings, a public hearing and fundraisers were held and a Block Grant management team was formed.
At the same time that the Hotel Floyd was being constructed and grant funding was being put to work, the SustainFloyd Farmers Market Community Pavilion was being developed as a downtown outlet for local agriculture, fitting for a community that has long been based in agriculture. Jackie and Woody Crenshaw purchased the Floyd Country Store with plans for renovation and returning the store to its roots. The Winter Sun building (now Dogtown Roadhouse) was gearing up with live music shows and the Jacksonville Center for the Arts (now Floyd Center for the Arts) was well-established and growing.
There was also a growing interest in repurposing abandoned buildings downtown, such as the site of an old grocery store that local citizens pooled their resources to purchase. The building was refurbished into The Village Green, a place to “showcase local businesses and keep the town center alive,” Woody Crenshaw, one of the citizen investors, was quoted in The Floyd Press as saying.
The CDBG grant funds provided business façade improvements, gateway signs, downtown sitting areas and the parking lot along Locust Street, a key component to the downtown revitalization that benefits businesses and residents and draws visitors to what Floyd has to offer, beautiful landscapes, farms, artisans, musicians, mountain traditions and Floyd’s do-it-yourself entrepreneur spirit.
In a 2019 guest column for Blue Ridge Country Magazine, Floyd’s current Mayor, Will Griffin, wrote a guest column about how the changes in Floyd have benefited the community. He wrote about Floyd’s accessibility to The Blue Ridge Parkway, the resurgence of old time and bluegrass music, the Floyd Country Store as a noted venue on of Virginia’s Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail and the growing success of Floydfest that has solidified Floyd’s position as a music destination.
“We have created a vibrant tourist economy without giving up who we are,” wrote Griffin, who was in attendance at the first PFF meeting before he was the town mayor.
Every town needs a park, a gathering place where both residents and visitors can come together. The Warren G. Lineberry Park has been the Partnership’s biggest undertaking. After the town of Floyd purchased the 2.7 acres of park land in 2006 from the Lineberry family, the PFF brought back the antique auctions and appraisals and hosted an ice cream social to raise money to build the amphitheater stage that graces the property today.
The town provided some park funds, along with the children’s playground. The PFF gathered community input, organized projects and brought volunteers and professionals together to get the job done, and the community stepped up. Phoenix Hardwoods donated handcrafted wooden benches. Swede McBroom donated a hand-crafted picnic table. Floyd County High School students helped build the gazebo music shelter that was designed, coordinated and donated by local musicians Mack and Jenny Traynham. The entrance sign for the park and the specially designed lights were built and donated by Woody and Jackie Crenshaw and Crenshaw Lighting.
Today the Lineberry Park is the site of picnics, live music events, a Floyd CARE (Community Action for Racial Equity) Juneteenth Celebration, The Floyd Small Town Summer concert series, a Christmas Tree Lighting event and more.
The Partnership, awarded Floyd’s Nonprofit of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2021, meets the fourth Monday of each month and continues their work developing educational walking trails and planning for a spring Health Fair. Flower Power, a new offshoot of the PFF, has been busy beautifying the town with flower plantings and painted murals.
Martin recently recalled the work that the PFF has done over the years for “the good of many,” citing when the group funded an educational and publicly-viewed water video that one of her interns created to raise awareness about the complexity and vulnerability of Floyd ground water.
Griffin, who spoke of how tourism dollars reduce the tax burden on local tax payers, credited the Block Grant as “the most important thing to happen to Floyd since I’ve been involved in town government (over 13 years).”
“People came together and did this,” Bauers said about the town improvements. “It really has been a partnership.”
Rogers explained that Artemis 2024’s theme is Illuminating the Darkness and that the issue, which is currently in production, will be launched at the Taubman Museum of Art in September. The theme for the 2025 issue is “Home.”
At one point, I became drawn to the lights on the floor and watching the feet of the dancers.
