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Tag Archives: North Carolina

Edenton, N.C., celebrates 300 years


Most ladies don’t like to talk about their age, but when the lady is the lovely waterfront village of Edenton, N.C., pride and enthusiasm are evident in telling about the centuries she has lived and all the ways she has helped the state and country grow.




At 300, she is still among the prettiest towns in America.


She has stories to tell: the first permanent settlement in North Carolina; the capital of North Carolina from 1722 to 1743; her 18th-, 19th- and early 20th-century architecture and the people who built and occupied it; surviving the Revolutionary War and Civil War; her pioneering role in women’s

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How to grow NC tourism? Social media, of course

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State budget threatens Mountain Gateway Museum


Gov. Pat McCrory’s proposed state budget could mean the closing of the Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center in Old Fort, along with four state historic sites in North Carolina.




However, many local leaders and residents say Old Fort and McDowell County cannot afford to lose the Mountain Gateway Museum, which has been there for more than 40 years. The museum preserves and celebrates mountain culture in western North Carolina and also provides a place for special events like Pioneer Day and Oktoberfest. It helps draw tourists to a small town that has already suffered job losses and closed manufacturing industries, they say.


On Wednesday,

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Blowing Rock’s downtown among ‘Great…

Each year, tens of thousands of tourists visit Blowing Rock. And whether they are here for the horse show, to drive along the Parkway, or take a hike in the woods, they all seem to spend some time downtown on Main Street.

This unique aspect of the village was honored last week when Blowing Rock’s Main Street was named one of five “Great Main Streets” of North Carolina by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association.

The award was part of this year’s Great Places in North Carolina Awards.

“This is the second year that we have celebrated great places throughout the state with these awards,” said Kate Pearce, co-chairwoman of the Great Places Initiative.

“It’s modeled after the American Planning Association’s national program. This year we added a “Great Neighborhoods for Kids” award and we will probably add another new award next year. It’s a way of celebrating great places in the state and exposing the role of city planning, whether it be an organic process or professional planning,” she said.

In recognizing Blowing Rock’s Main Street, the judges said, “Main Street is the hearty of

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Dare Co. jobless rate tops 20 percent again

OUTER BANKS

For the second straight year, Dare County’s January jobless rate hit 20 percent despite signs of an improving economy.

Before 2012, Dare County unemployment was previously that high in January 1993, according to statistics from the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. During the boom of a few years ago, January rates were under 10 percent.

Jobs are typically harder to find during the cold months after Christmas and before the spring brings more visitors to the Outer Banks. In past years, construction work has picked up in winter months and helped ease off-season unemployment. Activity is up in tourism and construction, but it is not translating into jobs.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Lee Nettles, executive director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. “They are saying we’re recovering, but it doesn’t feel like that to people.”

The gross occupancy receipts for lodging in Dare County reached an all-time high of $385.2 million

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Kohn: We should heed low comfort level for fracking risks

In his inaugural address, Gov. Pat McCrory noted North Carolina’s vibrant and diverse economy, “Agriculture, manufacturing, finance, the military, travel and tourism, and many more.” Ironically many sectors of our economy particularly agriculture and tourism could be jeopardized by the governor and General Assembly’s move to implement crash energy exploration programs of the type not seen here before.

Proponents of fracking argue that it would bring jobs and prosperity to North Carolina. However, the experience of states where it has already been implemented, as well as the caveats in statements by local environmental advisory groups, present a more complex and decidedly less romantic picture.

North Carolina, like the East Coast generally, does not have a history of drilling for gas and oil like other parts of the country. As a result, we do not have in place workers with the necessary skill sets or the equipment they require. So they would have to be imported from out of state. As Susan Christopherson, professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell has noted, “Evidence from already developed shale plays indicates that shale gas drilling relies mostly on out-of-state workers.” The local

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Smoking ban, sand top list of concerns

The Wrightsville Beach smoking ban, Room Occupancy Tax formula and Coastal Storm Damage Reduction project funding were among the topics discussed at a meeting leaders from Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure beaches held with North Carolina Representative Ted Davis Jr., R-New Hanover. 

Held on Friday morning, March 22, at Shell Island Resort, an update on the Wrightsville Beach smoking ban was the first item on the meeting agenda. 

In his efforts to secure a local act from the North Carolina General Assembly that would clarify Wrightsville Beach’s enforceable jurisdiction on the beach strand for the ban, Davis said the North Carolina State Constitution prevents any local bills dealing with health, sanitation or nuisances. The smoking ban would qualify under all three.

Since learning this, Davis said he began to pursue a statewide bill that would allow local municipalities to enforce these ordinances

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