The Honorable Charles Neaves swore in returning commissioner Joe Walker and newly-elected commissioners, Cicely McCulloch and Terry Kennedy Monday night during the December Elkin Town Board meeting. Attorney Ray Parker was also sworn in again to continue his role as town attorney.

Mayor Lestine Hutchens thanked retiring commissioner Harold Wagoner for his years of service to the community as a town commissioner and thanked commissioner Gambill Aldridge for his dedication to the board during his term.

"I have appreciated working with all the commissioners over the years," Wagoner said. "I'm going to miss it."

Aldridge voiced his appreciation for all the help the town staff had provided during his term.

I've really enjoyed my four years as a commissioner," Aldridge said. "This is a strong progressive board. I was fortunate to serve under two mayor's, Lestine and Tom Gwyn. I don't think many commissioners have had that privilege. It does make me proud to be a resident of Elkin. The staff of the town is very good in supporting the commissioners along with John (Holcomb), Lloyd (Payne) and George (Crater). I want to congratulate Cicely and Terry and say that I think they will do a good job for the residents of Elkin."

A new mayor pro-tem was also needed and the board voted unanimously to re-elect Joe Walker.

Wagoner had held a position on the Fireman's Relief Fund as a trustee which also needed to be filled. Hutchens told the board that the fire department had nominated Walker. The board concurred and voted unanimously to appoint Walker.

Todd Tucker, President of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership, was in attendance at the board meeting to present an update of the progress of the partnership. Tucker told the board that he had recently took a trip to Canada with members of the 12-county organization that was "somewhat successful", in recruiting new businesses to Surry County.

"One of the things the partnership has been talking about is a marketing campaign with the Very Surry Organization," Tucker said. "We've formed a marketing committee to talk about an alignment. We have a lot of vacant industrial building and we are discussing a multi-jurisdictional industrial park in which the towns of Dobson, Pilot Mountain, Elkin and the city of Mount Airy would share the cost of development and share in the tax base as well."

"We have had two clients look at properties in Elkin lately," he said. "These would be small to medium sized employers."

In other business, the board granted a matching grant to the Yadkin Valley Craft Guild after the guild has raised more than $5,000 this year.

The guild is hoping to host a website store where products can be sold online.

An additional change order in the amount of $293,872 was granted toward the sewer project to accommodate corrections to the original plans due to poor soil conditions. The remaining funds left in contingency is $274,000.

Hutchens announced that a gift of $25,000 had been given toward the Workforce Training Center in honor of Johnsie Hudspeth by BB&T Bank.

"This donation was to honor Johnsie's life," Hutchens said. "I hope we can put a plaque in our new center with her name on it. She worked very hard to help things happen in Elkin."

The board unanimously agreed to sign a 15 year lease with the county and Surry Community College for the workforce training center facility.

This lease will allow for the possibility of the county selling the center to the town of Elkin at the end of the 15 years.