Taylors Town Square Picking Up Steam

Taylors Town Square, a civic group devoted to discussing Taylors and its identity as a community met for the second time Wednesday, and the gathering indicated the group is gaining momentum.

More than 40 people packed into the former Taylors Post Office across the street from Taylors First Baptist Church on Wednesday, doubling the attendance of last month's meeting, according to the organizer of the group, Alex Reynolds.

Ron Geyer, who moderated the meeting's discussion pertaining to the question of where the center of Taylors is or ought to be, started the meeting with an explanation of Taylors Town Square's purpose. 

"There is a notion that community can exist in an electronic age without being with each other.... Taylors Town Square rejects that notion" Geyer said, saying that mere ideas cannot alone constitute a community - that physical presence in the same space is a requisite factor in what binds people together. 

The meeting was attended by several notable figures in the Taylors area, including County Council Member Sid Cates, Taylors Fire Chief Bobby Baker, Taylors Fire and Sewer Commissioner Doug Wavle and Taylors First Baptist Pastor Paul Jiminez. 

The general consensus by most of the attendees was at the very least, the center of Taylors was the Main Street area of the community off of Wade Hampton Boulevard. Some even said they thought of Taylors in its entirety as being specifically the chunk of the map just east of Wade Hampton Boulevard, or the "old" Taylors. 

A quick straw poll, however, showed most in the crowd agreed that they were comfortable with the notion of Taylors being considered locations with the postal zip code of 29687. 

Cates, speaking briefly at the meeting, said he believed he could convince the county to fund a reprint of a history book on Taylors so that those involved in the discussion of what Taylors' identity is and ought to be, could get a foundational knowledge of the area. 

Wavle noted that there are many subdivisions that were once considered farmlands adjacent to Taylors that are now considered Taylors. 

"Many have not joined in the concept that this is Taylors," Wavle said. "It's just a mailing address to them." 

Several attendees noted the lack of a true downtown Taylors or community center in which residents can converge and interact. 

"One of the realizations is that for Taylors, practically speaking, that place does not yet exist in concrete sense," Geyer said. 

Taylors Town Square meets the first Wednesday of each month.