Meet Ashley Armstrong, the new face of local business.

Memo to new employee: your first task at your new job is to manage your organization’s biggest event.

Oh yeah, and it’s only a few weeks away.

That’s not exactly how it happened, but after taking the reins of the Bainbridge Island Downtown Association, Ashley Armstrong didn’t exactly have a lot of time to adjust before the BIDA-sponsored Third of July celebration.

Fortunately, she had plenty of help and guidance from those who’ve been through it before. And now that it’s over, she can really settle in.

“It’s going well,” Armstrong said, of her new gig, which began five weeks ago. “I’m still learning and catching up with things.”

Those things include the coming streetscape project on Winslow Way.

BIDA is working closely with the design team, and is hosting monthly informational meetings between planners and downtown business owners.

There also are upcoming events, including a Harry Potter promotional event this weekend (see box) and a series of movies to be shown over the summer at Waterfront Park.

Armstrong graduated from the University of Washington with a political science degree before earning a law degree from Seattle University in 2004.

Before accepting her new position, she was practicing law in Seattle.

So why the career change?

“That’s a hard question to answer,” she said. “Law just wasn’t a good fit. This is a better fit for different parts of my skillset. I really like the community aspect of what I’m doing here.”

Armstrong grew up in Bremerton before crossing the water for school.

After several years in Seattle, she and her husband, attorney Kevin Cure, recently moved to back to her hometown.

The commute is a bit long, she said, but at least she and Cure are in the same boat – he works in Port Orchard.

For Armstrong, the island is hardly unknown territory.

She spent a great deal of time on Bainbridge Island growing up because her grandfather lived here, and she did some work with the downtown association earlier this year.

Armstrong succeeds Cris Beattie, who resigned her post to pursue other interests earlier this year, after a five-year run with the organization.

“We’re here to serve as a source of information,” she said of BIDA. “And I’m here to be a voice for our members and the downtown community.”

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HarrY PottEr

How will it all end? The Bainbridge Downtown Association has magically timed the first screening of its summertime Movies in the Park series with the release of J.K. Rowling’s send-off, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The fun starts at 8 p.m. July 20 at Waterfront Park with costumes, a trivia contest and photo opportunities followed by a 9 p.m. showing of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

Even more fun is planned; see www.bainbridgedowntown.org.