- Title
- Our State
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-
- Date
- February 2002
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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Our State
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Lincoln
BY ANGEL SCHROEDER
County
Buoyed by .1 great spirit
ol coo|XTation lx- 1 ween
govern mental i nstitut ions,
nonprofit organizations,
and concerned citizens,
Lincoln County regains
its economic optimism.
II North Carolina can be described
with the phrase “From the
Mountains to the Sea." then Lincoln
Count)’ is truly a microcosm of the
state. More than 50 miles long, its
western end reaches the foothills of
the Blue Ridge and its eastern end is
defined by Lake Norman, the great
"inland sea." Along the way there are
wide-open spaces, historic sites, cultural
activities, and a thriving economy.
And. like the state, Lincoln County is
growing rapidly. Newly released census
numbers show a population of 63,780,
a nearly 27 percent increase over 1990.
With growth can come headaches, but
a strong spirit of cooperation between
city and county governments, nonprofit
organizations, and concerned citizens
has helped make it manageable.
"In the next 10 years Lincoln County
is going to blossom even more,"
says Ken Kindley, president of the
Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber
of Commerce. Kindley has seen the
county through both good times and
bad, including the closure of several
textile mills in the 1 980s and the
apparent death of downtown
Lincolnton that shortly followed. But
Lincolnton and Lincoln County have
come roaring back, with a successful
downtown redevelopment plan in place
and plenty of new industries to replace
those of the past.
Downtown draw
“We have constant calls for space,”
says Brad Guth, community develop¬
ment director with the City of
Lincolnton. "It’s always been a small
town, so we don’t have a lot of white
elephant buildings sitting empty."
With Lincolnton accounting for 60
percent of the county's retail sales
made, it’s a thriving market for busi¬
ness. Guth hopes to pui in place the
last remaining piece of the puzzle —
downtown residents — with an upper-
story incentive grant program for
downtown businesses. "Bringing resi¬
dents downtown will create that 24-
hour atmosphere we want," he says.
Lincolnton recently won the NX-
Downtown Development Association’s
2001 Best Public Improvement
Award for its downtown greenway,
the Marcia II. Cloninger Rail-Trail.
The trail is currently about a half-
mile long, but is being extended
another third of a mile to a city park.
It will eventually link parks on oppo¬
site sides of the city. The project took
a gritty, unused railroad track and
turned it into a beautiful public
space. It’s a good example of the
kind of thinking that characterizes
the county's development.
Cruise Line
Smack in the middle of Lincolnton’s
Main Street stands a majestic Greek
Revival-style courthouse. And It’s easy
to find yourself driving around and
around it looking for a way out of the
endless loop.
When I was a teenager, the thing to
do on weekends was to drive around
the courthouse until you saw someone
you wanted to talk to. You met at a fast-
food restaurant or maybe It’s Drive-in.
where you can still get a great po-boy
sandwich and set-up (a sweet soft drink
concoction involving Sun Drop and a
maraschino cherry). But cruising is no
longer allowed. While I was away at col¬
lege. it seems, the cruisers got rowdy
and were banned. Downtown merchants
got tired of cleaning up the mess on
Monday mornings.
The closest you’ll come to cruising in
Lincolnton these days is the Cruise Down
Main Street event, sponsored by the
Lincoln County Veterans Association. The
event takes place on the Sunday before
Veterans Day. and participants donate
flags for decorating veterans’ graves
throughout the county for the holiday.
Horseless buggies, muscle cars, and hot
rods fill the courthouse loop and spill
down Main Street — just like old times.
Irlniiiirv 2002 ( tin Male 89