The city of LaFayette is refocusing its mission with a new initiative aimed at improving the community and engaging more of the city’s residents.
Usually it’s the chamber of commerce that rallies businesses and engages community members, but as a city without one, Main Street Manager and city employee Scott Underwood said officials and volunteers have created the “Hive” to gather citizens and help promote the city. In a beehive, all the bees must work together for a common goal, which is the inspiration for the new initiative’s name, Underwood explained.
“When you have a chamber of commerce, it’s something everybody feels like they are a part of, and that’s why we wanted to make the Hive,” he said, “so everybody feels like they have something to be part of and it’s getting everybody to work together.”
While not exactly a chamber of commerce, the Hive consists of five focus groups made up of volunteers from the community. Anyone can be a volunteer and no one will be excluded, Underwood said. The five groups are: recreation and outdoors; events; planning, zoning and architecture; beautification; and business development and recruitment.
For example, the Hive’s recreational group will promote the outdoors with bird-watching events, hiking meet-ups and other similar activities. The Hive’s events group will plan the city’s Honeybee Festival and annual Easter egg hunt, coming up March 24, among other events. The planning, zoning and architecture committee will often work closely with the beautification group to clean up and improve areas of downtown and the rest of LaFayette.