New Downtown Sylva Association executive director Julie Sylvester meets the top requirement of the job: she is enamored with Sylva.

“I found Sylva two years ago and loved it,” she said.

She and her husband are renovating a house downtown.

“We plan to stay here forever,” she said.

Sylvester moved here from Atlanta and was hired by the DSA board in mid-October to be executive director. Prior to moving to Sylva she worked for the non-profit Clean Air Campaign that promotes alternate means of transportation such as bicycles, carpools and walking in Atlanta.

Sylvester, who had served on the DSA board since February as the fundraising chair, said one of her goals is making sure Main Street merchants weather the economic downturn.

“I think it’s hurting some businesses,” she said, adding that she hopes merchants have a good December.

Sylvester said one of her first initiatives as director has been surveying business owners to “find out what works.”

“There are so many things you can get locally,” she said. “I think it’s a great downtown.”

Sylvester said she thinks Downtown Sylva has about everything it needs, but said an organic grocery store or a linens store could be good additions to downtown.

Expanding the DSA’s membership, which is currently at 60, is another one of Sylvester’s goals. She noted that the DSA board voted in August to expand the DSA boundaries to include other merchants, not just the ones downtown.

She said the boundary expansion will be done in phases and that merchants outside the downtown area wanted to be in the organization.

Loretta Womack, owner of Lily’s Treasures, a children’s boutique in downtown, said she thinks Sylvester will do a good job. She would like to see Sylva become more of a shopping destination rather than where people only stop to shop while driving through.

To make Sylva more of a destination will require more advertising and special events like the chili cook-off this Saturday, Womack said.

DSA has a budget of $55,000, primarily from new memberships, donations from merchants and a contribution from the town of Sylva.

Sylvester has a lot of ideas for new ventures the DSA can launch to raise the profile of downtown.

Here’s a smattering of those ideas to boost commerce downtown:

• Sylvester organized a shop local campaign. A “shop local” ad will be placed in the Fine and Performing Arts program at Western Carolina University. A banner will be displayed downtown encouraging local shopping.

• Christmas events include a parade on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 3:30 p.m. — a good time as it encourages parade-goers to eat or shop downtown afterward. On the day of the parade from 12 to 3 p.m. in the courtyard of 553 restaurant DSA will have a fundraiser in which children can get pictures with Santa. Those who bring canned goods for the Community Table food drive get half off their pictures.

• A chili cook-off this Saturday is a new event featuring amateur and professional categories. Sylvester wants to sponsor a “Taste of Sylva” next fall to feature the different restaurants.

• Updating the DSA’s Web site is in process, she said, adding that the current Web site is not very interactive and isn’t updated often.

• Distributing a newsletter is another of her objectives.

“I love the town, and I want people to see what it has to offer,” she said.

• Sylvester inherited the old battle of parking. She says there is enough parking, but is encouraging employees who work downtown not to take store-front parking and instead leave those spaces for customers.

• She also wants to expand the DSA committees to have more members and volunteers. The DSA committees are promotions and special events, fundraising, organization, merchants and relations, and design and marketing.

• Downtown Sylva has already benefited from the new Bridge Park, but it has more potential, such as hosting a summer concert series, she said.