Faison Executive Administrator Jimmy Tyndall covers a wide range of timely topics in videos he posts on the town’s Facebook page. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
This is a screenshot of one of Jimmy Tyndall’s Facebook videos for the Town of Faison. In this video, Tyndall confirmed that the town’s old gym would be razed and he described the brick courtyard that would be built in its place. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
FAISON — If you want to know what’s going on in this Duplin County town, just ask Jimmy. On second thought, go to the town’s Facebook page, where there’s a good chance Jimmy’ll tell you what’s going on without your ever having to ask.
Faison Executive Administrator Jimmy Tyndall has become something of a small-town Facebook phenom with his videos — hashtagged #faisonatitsfinest, #smalltownsimplicity and #jimmysoundsoff — addressing all sorts of stuff he feels the good folks of the town could benefit from knowing.
Since posting his first video on Dec. 3, 2021, he’s had videos explaining why the town’s historic gym will be razed, hyping the town’s new after-school program, promoting a yard sale to benefit the Boy Scouts, addressing questions about whether another grocery store will occupy the old Piggly Wiggly building (answer: yes), challenging folks to participate in the Trunk or Treat Halloween event, extending an invitation to the October Ghost Walk, introducing Faison’s new nail salon, and encouraging people to partake of the bounty in the community garden. And much, much more.
He’s not above adding a bit of levity to serious topics, assuring Faison residents that town water can freeze during extremely cold weather since no antifreeze is added to it; explaining that it’s challenging to catch dogs that are running loose since town employees aren’t equipped with magic wands with which to hypnotize them; and suggesting that people need to secure their trash cans in advance of strong winds, by whatever means they deem necessary, including sitting in them.
The videos already had a strong following when one posted on Jan. 17 exceeded anything Tyndall had ever imagined, and here’s how it came to be: The Town of Faison received a resolution from another North Carolina town opposing a proposed rate increase for homeowner’s insurance, but as Tyndall prepared to draw up a similar resolution for Faison’s upcoming board meeting, he discovered there wasn’t time; the deadline for public comment would come before the meeting. So he took to Facebook, explaining that the proposed rate hike for Duplin County was 71.3 percent and encouraging citizens not just in Faison, but throughout the county, to speak out against it. That video, he says, has been viewed by over 10,000 people and shared almost 600 times. “It has been, to date, our most successful, most widely viewed, most shared video that we’ve done in over two years,” he notes.
Most of the videos are short, two or three minutes, and all are unscripted and informal, sort of like if your neighbor — your very well-informed neighbor — dropped in to chat with you. Over time, he has adopted certain catchphrases, always opening with, “I do hope this video finds you well. Let me talk to you.” He sometimes films from Town Hall; other times, he goes on location, wandering through the local library, showing off the upgraded fitness room at the Recreation Center, or speaking from the town’s historic cemetery.
The videos are released sporadically; some weeks, two or three are posted; other weeks, none. “And that’s the whole point,” Tyndall explains. “There is no schedule, because here’s what happens: if I know my favorite program’s coming on Monday at six o’clock, I just take it for granted. It’s going to be there Monday at six o’clock. But if Jim pops on your screen just at random, you’re going to pay attention.”
How did the videos get their start? Well, Tyndall says, they weren’t his idea at all. For various reasons — including new regulations to comply with, and a desire to better promote the town — Faison officials met with two different entities, the Division of Community Assistance out of Wilmington and the UNC School of Government, resulting in the formation of two citizen groups that were posed questions such as What are Faison’s assets? and What does Faison need to improve on?
Once the School of Government evaluated the surveys, “We were told, you’re not using all your tools,” Tyndall recalls. “What they said was, you have social media, but you’re not using it, really, to your advantage…So, they suggested someone maybe doing videos.” He recalls then-mayor Carolyn Kenyon looking at him and asking, “Well, Jim, can you do that?”
Tyndall agreed to give it a shot, but admits, “I was apprehensive, because you don’t know how this is going to be received by the public.”
There were a couple of reasons Tyndall was a good fit for the job. First, among the assets Faison citizens listed with regard to their town was Jimmy Tyndall himself. Tyndall, a Sampson County native with a Faison address, had built a level of trust and dependability since starting to work with the town in 2006.
Second, at the time he was asked to do the videos, he was serving in the following roles: public works director, code enforcement officer, animal control officer and zoning administrator. (His title is now executive administrator, a position created especially for him.) He could go on camera, dispense information, and have the experience and knowledge to back it up.
In some of the earliest videos, he says, “We wanted to be able to say, ‘This is Faison. This is who we are.’” With that in mind, he visited several of the town’s businesses — among them, Turner Auto Parts, Brewer Hardware, and El Rebelde Market — and talked with the owners. “And I was shocked at the number of people who live here that didn’t know that some of these places were even here in this little town,” he recalls. “So that’s how it kind of started.
“Then it became, OK, what are we dealing with this week?” he continues. “I kind of read the situation, whatever I feel may be relevant at that moment. Because what good is it for me to do a video about pipes freezing when it’s 70 degrees outside…We want to be that source of constant and current information.
“The information has to be accurate and honest,” he adds. “We do not ever want this public misled. Ever.”
On camera, Tyndall appears comfortable and relaxed, but when asked if he gets nervous, he admits, “The day you stop getting nervous, you’ve outridden your ego, you need to go home…So, yeah, I’m nervous every time. Every time.”
Nervousness aside, he plans to continue doing the videos. “I kinda have to,” he says, with a half-smile. “I don’t see anybody else raising their hand.”
And with that, we come to Tyndall’s signature sign-off: “Y’all keep Faison first, and I’ll catch y’all down the road.”
