Blissfield’s new Downtown Development Authority Director/Main Street manager Patricia Rayl brings experience from working with some successful communities and with the Main Street program in Michigan. She also has a love of historic preservation that she sees as a good fit for her job in the village of Blissfield. The DDA/Main Street Program hired Rayl who officially took the helm of the management position on Nov. 5.
Rayl quickly was immersed into the activities of the Blissfield DDA/Main Street Program with the annual Yuletide Cheer event that drew many visitors and shoppers to downtown over the weekend.
Rayl replaces Michael Sessions who took a new position after a two-year stint in Blissfield.
Most recently Rayl was the Downtown Market manager of the Jackson Downtown Development Authority Farmers Market. Rayl has done internships with both the cities of Albion and Marshall where she also became acquainted with the Michigan Main Street Program and many of the people who work with it on the state level as well she said. Rayl has both an undergraduate degree and a masters in public administration from Eastern Michigan University.
Copyright 2012, River Raisin Publications, Inc. For the rest of this story and many other news stories including the Britton Deerfield Board of Education meeting, notes from Deerfield Village’s monthly meeting, lots of Yuletide and Veterans’ Day photos, please see the Nov. 14, 2012, edition of The ADVANCE. For home delivery, please call 517-486-2400.