- April 25, 2024
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Shortly after she was hired as Ormond MainStreet's executive director in 2012, Julia Truilo received a call from a member of the board.
This was around the time after changes to the Granada streetscape were negotiated with the Florida Department of Transportation, an issue that was in the works as Truilo came onboard, and many citizens were upset with the addition of medians in the downtown.
The board member told her two things: He only used Granada to get from his house in The Trails to the Oceanside Country Club, and that the new median would prevent him from making a left turn to dine at Frappes Italian Grille, the only other reason to stop in the district.
It’s become one of her favorite stories to tell. She knew then she had a lot of work to do to turn the corridor, which spans Granada Boulevard from Orchard Street to A1A, into a place of community.
“We needed to work on people understanding why and how this was happening, and what was the point of it,” Truilo said. “... The streetscape was really my entree into that world.”
And it’s a world she’s fully embraced and contributed to for nearly a decade. At the end of April, Truilo will be retiring from her position, and while several of her peers and colleagues said she will be leaving big shoes to fill, MainStreet’s mission will carry on.
Born and raised in Daytona Beach, Truilo’s roots in the community run deep. A graduate of Seabreeze High School, Truilo is also a member of the Davidson family, which owned the Daytona Beach News-Journal from 1928 to 2009.
"We can only hope to have someone that is as tenacious as Julia," Partington said. "You know, I think that her parents instilled in her the ability to do whatever she wanted to do and to find a way if somebody said, 'We can't do it. We can't do that.' ... And I think it's a talent of looking beyond the little obstacle that's in front of you to the greater good."
Bill Partington II, Ormond MainStreet board member
A lover of the arts, Truilo was the managing director of the Seaside Music Theater for 11 years before she was hired at the News-Journal as their director of online development. Then in 2012, she came to Ormond MainStreet, where — as one member of the two-person nonprofit — began working to turn it into the organization it is today.
During her tenure, Ormond MainStreet has amped up the amount of festivals and special events held in the city (such as the Celtic Festival, Riverfest, Taste of Ormond, and Granada Grand Festival of the Arts), helped to revitalize the aesthetic and walkability of the district, advocated for and aided small businesses during the pandemic, launched a branding campaign and become a nationally-accredited member of the National MainStreet program. It boasts a membership of about 200 local businesses.
“I hope that my successor can really grab hold to the next step of the economic development part [of the] job,” Truilo said. “To help the businesses that are here to succeed and to bring in those businesses that we need to complete our package.”
Ormond MainStreet wouldn’t be where it is today without Truilo’s tenacity and intellect, said Becky Parker, community engagement and events coordinator for Ormond MainStreet.
“Julia is such a unique person in that she can do a lot of different things and do it well,” Parker said. “She can wear a lot of different hats and I think part of that is her experience and the different career paths that she’s had, but also just she’s incredibly intelligent and doesn’t get rattled easily.”
Parker has been with Ormond MainStreet since 2014, and said Truilo has become so much more than her boss — she’s the friend she sees every morning at work, the family she spends holidays with. During the pandemic shutdowns, they worked around the clock to make sure business owners had all the information they needed to make daily decisions, with Truilo’s dining room table serving as their makeshift office.
“It feels like we operate as one machine sometimes, because we each have our individual tasks and the things that we handle, but then we’ll collaborate together on projects and events and grants, things like that.”
Parker and Truilo can probably finish each other’s sentences, said Nancy Cortez, president of the Ormond MainStreet executive committee.
Cortez remembers the day Truilo was announced as the organization’s executive director. She wasn’t on the executive committee at the time, but Cortez was a board member, and she was stunned that they were able to hire Truilo.
“You can’t explain that feeling, when you’re like, ‘Wow, we have Julia Truilo as our executive director,’ and I really believe that part of her service for Ormond MainStreet was love, and it’s because she loved Ormond,” Cortez said. “She had great connections, and is there any way we’re going to ever find anybody like her? I’m not sure.”
The search for her successor will be tough, Cortez added. Truilo has worked hard to keep MainStreet’s mission relevant with the city and with developers like Bill Jones who have contributed significantly to the downtown.
“She’s just become somebody that they completely respect, and know that she has our back, because she lives right around the corner,” Cortez said. “Of course she wants it to be successful, so if we could find somebody that is a local like her that can do her job, take on the position, we will be very blessed.”
Bill Partington II, owner of Bill Partington’s AHC Safe and Lock in the downtown, is one of the 1995 founding members of Ormond MainStreet and still serves on the board today.
The organization was created after late Ormond Mayor David Hood decided to consolidate advisory boards and the Downtown Improvement board was absorbed into the Quality of Life board. He and the other three Downtown Improvement board members felt like this wasn’t a good fit, and so they reached out to the DeLand MainStreet organization for help founding a MainStreet program in Ormond Beach.
Before Truilo, Ormond MainStreet had about four past executive directors, with an average tenure of two or three years. She arrived at a time when the organization was established, but not thriving, Partington said. Under her leadership, Ormond MainStreet has blossomed with new ideas, as Truilo is always looking for ways to improve or build upon existing programs and opportunities.
“We can only hope to have someone that is as tenacious as Julia,” Partington said. “You know, I think that her parents instilled in her the ability to do whatever she wanted to do and to find a way if somebody said, ‘We can’t do it. We can’t do that.’ ... And I think it’s a talent of looking beyond the little obstacle that’s in front of you to the greater good.”
Though Ormond MainStreet has had great directors in the past, City Commissioner Dwight Selby, who serves as the commission’s liaison for the organization, said Truilo is at the top of the list. Her enthusiasm, knowledge of the community and ability to stage special events has been fantastic for the community, he said.
“Big shoes to fill,” Selby said. “A tough act to follow, but there’s a great downtown, great community. If somebody comes from outside the area, they’re going to fall in love with the place. If somebody from the area rises that wants the position, they already know how great the area is, and I’m sure they’ll bring a new perspective to things that will be great also, because she’s laid some great foundation.”
Since 2012, Truilo said she has seen a gradual change in how people feel about downtown. There are still people in the community who don’t believe in the revitalization and economic development of the district — who believe that it is a waste of time and money.
But with a steady 97% occupancy of storefronts in the district, and a net gain of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic (four businesses closed, but six opened), Truilo believes Ormond MainStreet is continuing in the right direction. The next challenge, in terms of economic development, is to look for spaces where different kinds of businesses are needed — bike shops, artisanal manufacturing, an entertainment venue.
She would also like to see ways to help small businesses complete interior upgrades through grants, similar to the building improvement grant program which helps businesses with exterior renovations.
“This program is not working on blight anymore,” Truilo said. “We’re working on whatever that next step is. How do we keep what people like about Ormond Beach and continue to grow? How do we reinforce what we have so that it survives whatever the next crisis is? Those are things that I think mature programs need to spend a lot of time on.”
But though Truilo is retiring, she will continue to be involved in the community. She only lives a half-mile away from the district, and she will remain active with the Ormond Beach Arts District. You may even catch her onstage from time to time.
“I was raised here and raised with the idea that you cared about where you lived, and you paid attention, and you helped people do better where you live, because that made everything better,” Truilo said. “And I have carried that with me throughout my career wherever I was, because it seems to me important, especially in a small town, especially in a place where we are responsible for one another in a lot of ways, that caring about the place is paramount. Certainly, I think it is paramount to this organization.”
