The Dillon Town Council identified several short-term goals in May after holding community meetings over several months, and it further discussed a goal to maximize its summer events at a May 19 meeting.

Trace Faust, a consultant who helped facilitate the community meetings and subsequent Town Council discussions, said while it is too late to plan a summer “kickoff” event that had been brought up in a prior meeting, the council could brainstorm ways to capitalize on “momentum” in the town and make sure summer events are as effective as possible in driving tourism and creating community connection.

“This is a brainstorming session,” Faust said. “We’re not planning an event right now, We’re not making a decision.  We’re literally surfacing ideas that you all have.”

Council member Barbara Richard suggested the town hold ribbon cuttings for anything new for the summer, including pickleball courts, a new operator at the marina’s tiki bar and work at the town park plaza, among other things. Members of the Dillon Economic Development Advisory Committee present at the meeting said the town helping to direct attention to ribbon cuttings for new businesses would help advertise them and make business owners feel welcome.

To help capitalize on events that draw crowds to Dillon, council member Benedict Raitano suggested the council keep working on improving signage and create some kind of map of local businesses to direct people to them. Council member Linda Oliver said that having food trucks in the town core, or the area within and around La Bonte Street, Buffalo Street and Lake Dillon Drive, could also help the town make the most of summer crowds.

Richard gave ideas for new events the town could put on, including a restaurant week or nighttime 5k run with light-up costumes. Council member Shannon White said there could be especially low-cost events to help engage the community, like inviting people to bring a blanket to the town park for a community picnic day.

“Even in the current state of what we currently have (for events), we’re missing some opportunities to capitalize on togetherness and bringing people together, and then creating those memories,” White said.

Faust said they appreciated all the ideas for new programming but asked the group to focus on any barriers the town currently faces to making the most of the events already on its summer calendar. Council member Rachel Tuyn pointed out that adding any programming would stress the limited staff time of the town’s recreation department.

Stay connected to Summit County.

Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at SummitDaily.com/newsletter

Andrii Iwashko, the chair of Dillon’s economic development advisory committee, suggested that, outside of events, the town could try to create more community connection by adding to its public spaces. He suggested that putting soccer goals in the town park could attract more people to it.

“People are always looking to find places to bring their families, their friends,” Iwashko said. “They stay here ’til the sun goes down, and when the sun goes down, they’ll probably walk over to one of our local restaurants and spend money there.”

Richard expressed support for Iwashko’s idea of bolstering gathering places, or as he called them, “watering holes.” White asked if there could be opportunities to find partners to help improve those spaces, like how the Summit Historical Society helps activate the town park baseball field with its annual Vintage Baseball Game.

Faust’s main takeaways, they said, were that the council would like to better use underutilized spaces and improve communication about what Dillon has to offer.