Anson Economic Development Corporation

At half-past ten on this crisp, sunny morning, November 27th, 2018, North Carolina Secretary of Transportation James Trogdon cut a scarlet ribbon and a caravan of VIP vehicles began the 18 mile trip from Stallings to Marshville on the newly-christened Monroe Expressway. Just a few minutes earlier, state and county officials offered words of both relief and excitement that the road project, 30+ years in the making, was finally coming to a successful conclusion. Each of the speakers shared their own personal “Monroe Bypass” story, mostly centered around the near-mythical nature of the road and the belief by many that it would never actually be built. My story dates to the months just prior to my moving to North Carolina. While still living in Ohio, I had forwarded ny resume to several Charlotte-area companies over the summer and fall of 1994. Right after Thanksgiving, I was invited to interview with an Indian Trail-based company that supplied cast aluminum components to the automotiv...

The bright future of Anson County was clouded a little last week as voters defeated a referendum which would have legalized alcohol sales in unincorporated areas. As stated in previous posts, Anson County was in an unprecedented position for transformational growth spurred by combination of factors - the opening of the Monroe Expressway, an unusually robust national economy and the rapid growth of the Charlotte region - which are unlikely to occur again in the same combination anytime in the near future. There was a very narrow window of opportunity to completely change the lives of Ansonians in a positive way and, unfortunately, that window has now closed. So, where do we go from here? While the sort of transformational change we had hoped for in new hotels, stores, restaurants and homes in the western part of the county is almost certainly out of the picture now, there are still some positives. So far in 2018, the county has added more than 100 new manufacturing jobs and companie...

I attended Ohio University my first two years of college, and spent a lot of my study time at the Alden Library. Alden was designed with a central core of books and documents, and a row of semi-private study carrels along the outside walls of each floor. It was easy to find a secluded spot on the upper floors where you could hide away and work without much interference or interaction with others. My favorite spot was a remote corner on the top floor which was adjacent to the library’s archives of Popular Mechanics magazine. Every now and then I would take a study break, pull out one of the issues and see what was new and happening in 1955 or 1962. When I transferred to Bowling Green for the 1983-84 school year, I quickly learned that BG’s Jerome Library was arranged differently. The private study areas on the upper floors had locked doors and were reserved for graduate students. Undergrads were mostly confined to a large area of communal tables on the...