We have all felt the pull of Newtown on our imaginations when we are called away briefly on a business trip or for some longer interval of unavoidable duty. It is a forceful center of gravity, weighted with memory and anticipation, that always pulls us back no matter how stray our orbit. Now that it is October, the town’s powers of attraction are beginning their annual surge, starting with the deep blush of the leaves and the pounding heart of the high school band at halftime, moving through the chilly excitement of Halloween night on Main Street and the icing edges of Taunton Lake and Hawley Pond at Thanksgiving, and winding up in the Ram Pasture where a thousand people will sing to a tree and disperse into the dark convivial nights of yuletide. At times like these, we think the easiest job in the world would be the job of selling Newtown.

But those charged with that task are not having an easy time of it. Commercial land and buildings in Hawleyville, Sandy Hook, and the Borough sit vacant. Newtown’s technology park is still all concept and no concrete, and whatever marketing dynamic there may have been at Fairfield Hills seems to have been frozen in amber. And this month, with the move of town offices to the new municipal center at Fairfield Hills, we will add another nearly empty building to the inventory: Edmond Town Hall, an icon of the town itself.

The community’s labored efforts at economic development have covered all the bases with presentations, brochures, and websites. While there has been some isolated success, Newtown is nowhere near the tipping point where the advantages of doing business here become so obvious that marketing becomes superfluous. Marketing, the glossy art of promotion, often entails making a product sound better than it is. If somehow we could convey the essence of Newtown, precisely as it is without artifice or exaggeration, to those looking for a place to do business, we might have better success. How can we redirect the powerful pull of Newtown that tugs at the hearts and minds of its citizens toward entrepreneurs who would both benefit the town and benefit from the many resources and assets of the town? Inviting them to a football game, or trick-or-treating, or carol singing might be a little farfetched, but perhaps the town should be thinking along those lines.

When this town gets together for an event, like the Labor Day Parade, or the Newtown Soccer Club’s Memorial Day weekend soccer tournament, or the Relay For Life, magic happens. The culture of this town offers tremendous business opportunities in the areas of entertainment, food, the arts, education, and athletics. And to make the most of those opportunities, the town itself could help keep the excitement and interest level high with an expanded and coordinated year-round schedule of food, music, or film festivals, invitational sports tournaments, or symposia on topics of interest to educators, scientists, and business leaders.

Making the town a cultural mecca would require resources and infrastructure. The latter we have in abundance at both Edmond Town Hall and at Fairfield Hills. Both public and private grants could help underwrite some of the events, while others could themselves be commercial in nature and yield profits for private organizers. Combining and coordinating the efforts of the Economic Development Commission, the Cultural Arts Commission, and the Parks and Recreation Commission could help shine a light on the true and attractive nature of our town and extend the pull of Newtown far beyond its borders. It could stimulate our economy and our lives.