By Todd Hallman

Vibrant towns have the support of their communities. People take pride in their neighborhoods and attempt to make their communities better places to live. Elizabethton is a great community, but our community is only as great as the support of its citizens. We must be committed to supporting each other. We must be committed to our local businesses and we must support our community events.
This next week Elizabethton will host the 51st Annual Covered Bridge Festival. I would encourage all of us to attend and support this community event. Our town stands at a great crossroads. We must do all we can to bring people into our community. What we do and what we support today affects what we do tomorrow. Our community must realize what we have.
I have lived in North Carolina (Charlotte and Raleigh areas), Louisiana (New Orleans area), and South Carolina (Greenville area). This is the greatest place that my family has been fortunate enough to live. Elizabethton is poised to be greater than she is today. What will help us cross this threshold? It will be our willingness to change and our unwavering support of this community both now and our future. Let us commit ourselves to this task as we make a great community even greater!