Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann may lead the Capital City across the Congaree, but he frequently reminded the Lexington Chamber about Columbia’s connections to Lexington during remarks at the group’s monthly Business Over Breakfast meeting Sept. 13.

That included his own frequent presence on Lake Murray.

“I have a house in Gilbert, so I spend a lot of time on the water and enjoy all these great restaurants and shopping that Lexington has to offer,” the featured speaker said.

In addition to highlighting connections between Columbia and Lexington, in which many people who work in Rickenmann’s city live, the mayor highlighted a spate of pro-business and -development policies he’s pushed since taking office in January, which seemed to get a warm reception from the quiet and attentive crowd in attendance.

He spoke about trying to reduce the city’s property taxes, pointing to substantially lower rates in S.C. neighbors Greenville, Rock Hill and Charleston and regional competitors for business investment, such as Raleigh and North Carolina as a whole.

Rickenmann emphasized the importance of embracing other municipalities in the Midlands when it comes to attracting small businesses and larger employers to locate there.

“We have a workforce that collectively, as the Midlands, we can sell,” he said. “There’s not another place in the state of South Carolina today that has the workforce [that we have].”

He said a big part of this is for the Midlands as a whole to embrace development that attracts students graduating from the 60,000-strong University of South Carolina downtown, pointing to how making Columbia and other areas and municipalities more walkable will help attract young professionals wanting to live a more pedestrian lifestyle.

“Let’s support each other,” Rickenmann added. “If Blythewood gets a chip plant, guess what folks? We all benefit from it. If Lexington gets it, or West Columbia, Cayce, we need to join each other and support each other to go after this because regionally, that benefits all of us.”

The Columbia mayor touched on the great working relationship Columbia has with Lexington County for shared services, particularly praising Sheriff Jay Koon and his department.

“He works seamlessly with our police department,” Rickemann said. “We have to work seamlessly to be able to deal with all types of cross-judicial crisieses.”

Lexington Mayor Steve MacDougall, who introduced Rickenmann, came back up at the end of the breakfast to announce a new fall initiative that fell in line well with the Columbia mayor’s emphasis on downtown walking traffic, and which mirrors some initiatives that groups in that city have used to stimulate it.

The town will host a downtown scarecrow decorating contest in October (an idea brought to the town by Lexington Chamber President/CEO Angelle LaBorde and presented in partnership with the organizaiton, Town Communications Manager Laurin Barnes said). The event will allow groups to sponsor and decorate entries. People can come downtown to view the entries, which will be judged for prizes to be awarded in November.

“You can rent that phone pole for the month and put up your scarecrow,” the Lexington mayor said.

Columbia has frequently utilized such decorative schemes, with Historic Columbia annually hosting the similar Scarecrows in the Garden exhibit at the Robert Mills House and Columbia’s Main Street splashing color along its thoroughfares with “yarnbombings” and other temporary creative embellishments.

“We want people downtown, walking around downtown, visiting some of the special shops and restaurants that we have added downtown,” MacDougall said.