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Faces of Newton County 2015
The Covington News
Teri HALER
Leading Porterdale’s Main Street
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harming small towns are often called gems for
the beauty and brilliance they bring to their community.
For Teri Haler the metaphor can be brought out even further when you consider that gems have to be cut and polished from something bigger. The newly
appointed Porterdale Main Street Director decided to work with a Main Street
program due to her love of finding the character and beauty of a town. That is
exactly what she is doing in bringing out the gem of Porterdale.
“I enjoy figuring out a community’s niche; what makes it unique, what gives
it character,” Haler said. “Essentially if you can figure that part out, basically then
you just have to polish it up a little bit and bring out the positive aspects of the
community and spotlight it and feature it.”
When she took on the task of bringing out the character of Porterdale, Haler
reached back to its history and its natural surroundings. Porterdale is one of
several mill towns in the south, giving her plenty of other examples of how to
capture the charm.
“A lot of them are along a river district and along the railroad line,” Haler
said. “But Porterdale is unique because it has three mills with one still in
operation and one converted in to amazing apartment lofts.”
Porterdale also has the Yellow River water trail, with multiple boat
launches and the Yellow River park to attract people who prefer to be
outdoors.
“We want to encourage families to get out, whether it’s kayaking,
canoeing, paddle boarding or fishing,” Haler said. “We al