(This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Salisbury does not currently have a planned start date for the downtown Main Street project.)

SALISBURY — For the past few weeks, Claire Karriker has been going to Downtown Salisbury, Inc. community meetings, speaking with downtown stakeholders and working on bringing to life new ideas in her new role as DSI’s downtown coordinator.

Karriker was hired into the role following former Downtown Event Coordinator Latoya Price’s departure for Catawba College. As part of the hiring process, Downtown Director Sada Stewart Troutman said that the organization looked to redefine the role, keeping its focus on special events like the Cheerwine Festival and Ring in Spring while also bringing an added focus on working with downtown stakeholders in other areas.

“After attending several meetings, then the Main Street conference last week and some more this week, I’ve gotten to experience a lot of different things and have my hands in a lot of different things. The easiest part to showcase would be the events, that’s the big part of it, but that’s just a small piece of the puzzle,” said Karriker.

In addition to the events coordination, Karriker will also be tasked with fostering and maintaining avenues of communication among downtown stakeholders as well as developing and highlighting sponsorship and grant opportunities. Karriker will also serve as the DSI liaison to the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce.

“I operate like when you have a computer (browser) with 20 tabs open. That’s how I feel like I’m operating and I love it. That’s how I’ll usually work on items, ‘anyway I’ll pop over to this item. Oh, we’re going to a meeting, we’re popping over to this,'” said Karriker.

Karriker is far from new to Salisbury, having worked for the city for over a decade in multiple roles. She began with the communications department and moved over to the city’s IT department when her original role was removed by restructuring. While with IT, Karriker said she worked to bring in a fresh perspective, helping with events such as the city’s Hackathon and helping start a Girls Who Code club.

“Claire has been very integral to many different city events, so I think what we were looking for in this position was someone who was organized and enthusiastic and obviously, having knowledge about Salisbury is a huge asset to the position. Claire embodies both of those things. I’ve seen her work, and if you want something done creatively, efficiently and done well, everybody called Claire anyway, so I said ‘I’m just going to call and try and get Claire for good,’” said Stewart Troutman.

One of the main ideas that Karriker said she wanted to work on was finding ways to further market local businesses during DSI events, especially the largest event of the year in the Cheerwine Festival. She said that in past years she has worked at the information table for the festival, putting her in a position to hear the questions from visitors.

“How can we market the merchants? Some of that is something like the storefronts, adding some printouts for downtown-specific items, we talked about a handout that led people to some other areas, working on a digital footprint for that,” said Karriker.

Karriker said that she has also spent the past few weeks looking into ways to help businesses through the Main Street streetscape project, which will shut down different blocks of Main Street beginning in order to make improvements.

“What I’ve heard is a lot of the thread of storytelling for the downtown. Like (she) said, marketing the downtown merchants rather than the vendors that come in and supporting the businesses through the Main Street project. I think that (she has) brought a lot of energy to that and it’s really exciting,” said Stewart Troutman.

Karriker is a Rowan County native, graduating from East Rowan High School before getting her bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University.

Outside of her work with the city, Karriker spends plenty of time volunteering and serving with various organizations in the community. Last year, she was named the Volunteer of the Year by Hanford Dole for her work as a mentor with Communities in Schools. She also serves as a director for Camp Discovery, a week-long summer camp hosted by First United Methodist Church of Salisbury.

Karriker can be reached in her new role at claire.karriker@salisburync.gov.