Natalie ZeiglerBy Natalie M. Zeigler
City Manager

A recent listing of the “top Christmas towns in South Carolina” gained extremely strong attention here because the City of Hartsville appeared on the list. This came as a gratifying recognition because of how much City staff and our residents want this season to show off much of the best of everything we have to offer, and our staff works hard to make this happen.

Hartsville’s Christmas Parade serves as the obvious example, and standing out as one of the best, if not the best, holiday parade anywhere in the Pee Dee. It exemplifies our community spirit in a truly unique way, and for several years now the planning of its 50 or more entries has been in the hands of City staff. We have always taken a major role in its logistics, from the Fire Department’s engines to the many Hartsville Police officers ensuring safety along the route. This year’s parade, by the way, arrives tomorrow, Dec. 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on South Fifth Street. It will follow a slightly new route this year to avoid the Hartsville Farmers Market on East Carolina Avenue. It will pass down Laurens Avenue, turn left onto Fourth Street, left again on Home Avenue and left on North Fifth, before turning right on West Carolina Avenue.

Much of what makes us magical at Christmastime can be far simpler than a massive parade. A discussion last year of the need for more lights in our downtown led to one of our most impactful new decorations seen this season, as the sidewalk trees along Carolina Avenue have had their trunks wrapped with lights. This involved inspecting electrical outlets for 48 trees and upgrading many of them before the lights could be placed, but many have told us that it makes the center point of our community incredibly festive and bright, especially around dusk.

The City of Hartsville Christmas tree gives us another example of everything City staff has done. If you joined us for the tree lighting in Centennial Park, you saw a packed-out celebration of dance groups and musicians. What you may not have seen was the work of the Streets and Grounds crew to install and light up this 20-foot tree. At one point, they were in a boom lift hoisting up dozens of oversized ornaments in the rain.

If you’ve noticed that much of what I’m describing here highlights our downtown, that isn’t an accident. The improvement work we have taken on in the last year, including the complete refurbishing of East College Avenue’s parking lots, and its upcoming street surface repaving, have come from the principle that our community can only be as strong as its core, and that both infrastructure and appearance serve as critical ingredients of our growth. In November, the City advertised a new Streets and Grounds position, which will be hired shortly, to focus on maintenance and beautification of the downtown district. We aren’t just working to keep Hartsville one of South Carolina’s greatest cities at Christmas, we’re working toward keeping it that way the rest of the year as well.

Natalie Zeigler is the City Manager of Hartsville. For more information, call City Hall at 843-383-3015 or email info2@hartsvillesc.gov.