Lexington is taking a step it hopes will improve the lives of small businesses within the town.

At its regularly scheduled Oct. 2 meeting, Town Council unanimously approved the creation of a Small Business Advisory Committee, which will consist of nine local business owners. Three are required to reside within town, and the other six can own a business in town but reside outside the town limits.

“This is a great accomplishment by the town council. This is a renewed commitment to bettering and strengthening the small business community in our town,” said Council Member Gavin Smith, who spearheaded the committee’s formation. “I believe I speak for all of us when I say we're excited about what the committee stands to accomplish in the years to come.”

According to Smith, this committee will serve as a bridge between the town and its businesses and will provide a platform for business owners to voice their concerns, ideas and suggestions directly to the town’s decision makers.

Jeremy Addy, owner of Craig Reagin Clothiers on Main Street, told the Chronicle that he believes this committee will establish more transparency, adding that a lot of the time businesses don’t know where to start or what the first steps are.

“I think it would just help make it easier to open a business and licensing so you kind of know up front what it is like, what impact fees are related, what type of business licenses you need, the taxes and stuff,” Addy said, adding that he thinks it could help Lexington attract more businesses. “It’ll just kind of ease the process for them.”

Smith said the plan is for the committee to get started at the beginning of next year, with information about the application process to be shared in the future, with the town revamping the application process after receiving some early submissions.

Smith will be present on the committee as a liaison for council. He emphasized he will have no voting rights. Outside of Smith, Angelle LaBorde, president and CEO of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center, will have a role on the board along with the town's economic developer, Jack Stuart.

“This committee is designed to serve as a bridge between small business owners and the town council as we make decisions that have considerable impacts on small business owners,” Smith said. “I will have … the ability to listen to the feedback of the committee and bring that directly back to council and engage on behalf of council with the committee.”

In an op-ed provided to the Chronicle, Smith writes that when he first made his proposal he received warranted, constructive criticism from his fellow council members, adding that both Council Member Todd Carnes and Mayor Pro-Tem Hazel Livingston provided a lot of great insight.

According to Smith, some of the criticism received included why this committee was necessary as the Lexington Chamber already has its own version of a small business committee, aligned with the number of members and what industries would be represented.

Carnes echoed this, saying that there was lots of conversation about the number of members and narrowing down the scope. 

Carnes added that he has spent a lot of time with the local chamber and has tried to organically do what this committee will do through the network of businesses he has, stating that he thought Smith wanting to formalize a committee was a great idea.

He added that the chamber does a great job with its committee, but they cover a much broader geographical area, with people from six to eight other municipalities.

“[The town’s committee] allows unique focus and a limited scope, whereas the Small Business Committee at the chamber has to navigate laws and ordinances in the county and across multiple municipalities,” Carnes reasoned

Addy told the Chronicle that Lexington having their own committee will help give a voice to businesses, especially since a lot of business owners don’t live in the town.

According to Carnes, the committee will sunset and disband after 1.5-2 years, though he mentioned that that time can be expanded if necessary. He said that by having a time frame allotted to the committee, it should keep everybody focused and add a sense of urgency to find solutions.

“I'm not looking for specific feedback or specific bullet points from the committee,” Carnes said. “[I’m] most interested in giving them a blank slate and letting them dictate what are the top three to five things that they see as obstacles to their prosperity, their ease of use in the town.”