Franklin Wins Contest in Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine Voted Top Town in the Small Town Category

Franklin has won a contest in the small town category run by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine. The contest consisted of people rallying others via social media to vote in the contest. People were allowed multiple votes from multiple machines in a day. The contest webpage. 

Winners by category:

Small Town: Franklin, NC

Medium town: Roanoke, VA

Large town: Knoxville, TN

The article featuring Franklin can be seen on Blue Ridge Outdoors.

The Mayor and several local politicians have gathered at the Gazebo in downtown Franklin to celebrate the official announcement. The exclusive full video of the event announcement is embedded below.




Background 

A representative of the magazine visited the Franklin TDA September 2015 meeting to share details of the contest along with several business owners and a reporter who had widely shared the contest on social media. The representative sought $2,000 from the tourism authority to subsidize advertising by Franklin businesses in the article that would accompany the announcement of the winners in the small, medium and large town categories. The board decided to authorize subsidizing the advertisements up to $3,000. 

Due to a quorum not being present when the board voted to approve the funds a re-vote took place in the October meeting, when, in order to achieve a quorum in that meeting, board member Connie Gruberman participated in the meeting via telephone while she was out of town. I was unable to attend the October meeting because I was recording the candidate forum at The Lazy Hiker that evening.

Video of the September meeting is embedded below.







MEDIA ROLL CALL (media outlets with reporters/photographers present)

Macon Media (me)
The Franklin Press
WNCC-FM/WFSC-AM
The Macon County News and Shopping Guide


PHOTO SLIDESHOW





See photos on Flickr.


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