Sharpsburg: Working for strategic growth | News

As he talked, it was clear that he was excited about his hometown and the people that he represents. His goal, he said, is to set up the community, its businesses and residents to succeed. 

“If we’re not here to make things better, what the hell are we here for?” Cole said. “That’s just the way that I’ve come to look at it.”

Since he’s been in office, he’s tried to do that in a number of ways, including upgrading the town’s street signs to a black-and-white color scheme to help visually identify them as part of the town. He would like to add signs at the entrances of the town and come to Main Street signs, Cole said. In addition, the town recently created a Downtown Development Authority to help promote the downtown.

The biggest little town nobody’s heard of

“Sharpsburg is the biggest little town that nobody’s ever heard of,” Cole said. “We have 335 people that are (in) municipal Sharpsburg, but the zip code has … I’ve heard estimates of 25,000 to 30,000.”

And if the staff get a call for help outside the town limits, but in the zip code, they will do their best to help, he added.

Floyd Jones, Sharpsburg town administrator, said it’s a level of service and caring they want to provide.

“It’d be easy for us to just say, ‘That’s not us,’” Jones said. “We may not have the say … but we can get you (to) the right person.”

It’s one way the town tries to remove bureaucracy for residents and build relationships, he said.

“(We try) to take the governmental, bureaucratic edge off,” Jones said. “To be responsive and also at the same time,…