EP 71: Flexing the River (with Weldon, NC)
On this episode of Municipal Equation, the podcast about cities adapting to change, we talk with Mayor Hugh Credle of Weldon, N.C., to learn how his small town is thinking big with the help of the river -- the Roanoke -- running just alongside its limits.
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Transcript
This episode of Municipal Equation is brought to you by MedCost. MedCost balances the care of your employees with the financial health of your local government by offering flexible administration, best in class care management, cost containment strategies, health and wellness programs, access to a broad provider network, and exceptional customer service. MedCost. This is Municipal Equation from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. Hello, everyone. This is Ben Brown with the North Carolina League of Municipalities. And on this episode of Municipal Equation, incidentally, on the rockin' eve of the new fiscal year, We're talking local assets and leveraging them for growth. Meaning, this is an episode where you extract your version for the town you live in because we're zooming in on the map close to the Virginia North Carolina border to the small but motivated town of Weldon, North Carolina. And the reason it's Weldon on this episode is basically because I ran into the town's name twice in a day. One with the announcement that it, like a number of other local governments, had received a rural transformation grant from the state with money that's come down through the American Rescue Plan. So So it's money that's come down from the federal government and it's being administered by the state department of commerce. Weldon applies. The state awards a little more than $20,000,000 to 30 rural local governments across the state, including Weldon, for transformative investments. And by the way, if you want to learn more about these rural transformation grants, go to nccommerce.com/transform. There's another round of funding scheduled to open in September. So I'm surfing around, reading news, and I'm on the website of WRAL in Raleigh. And there's a full on story about Weldon, where about 1,700 people live. The headline was charming small towns build unique staycation experiences in NC. And the news story basically localizes the fact that if your community has a river running through it or very close to it, that's something to flex and do something with. And so Weldon is all about it. They're making things happen for themselves by flexing the Roanoke River and all it can do to attract people to the town. So I'm like, okay. Let's talk to somebody in Weldon to get a better idea of what they're doing.
My name is Hugh c Cradle. I'm the mayor of Weldon, North Carolina, newly elected mayor. And I'm originally from Pamlico County, North Carolina, small town called Mesic, M E S I C. And I moved here in 1980, and I worked with the school board. I was on the school board for twenty years, and I was chairman of the school board for seven years and I wrote the last seven years.
What what, what attracted you to Weldon?
Well, when I was a young man and and, and I dated a young lady in college, And she live in Halifax, and I we were both at North Carolina Central and Durham. On graduation, she went back home, and I went to my hometown. And then, you know, I have a couple years I contacted her, then later on, got married and had four children. And and so that's what got me here, Halifax County. I always did any curricular extracurricular activity. I always put Weldon first.
Well, yeah, just to get us better acquainted with the town of Weldon, could you kinda paint us a picture of Weldon and the people who live there? Could you know, just describe it for us and maybe what makes you proud to live there.
Well, London is a fun little town. It has its up and downs as a other it's a very old town. As I said earlier, I'm the first African American mayor of of wealth in a hundred and seventy eight year history. Wow. And so, I mean, so what track me here was is is the people and the kids. I know welding didn't have, anything for children coming up, and I just thought I would volunteer, become Scott Master for, like, thirteen years. I've coached Little League baseball and then football for, yeah, about eight years each. And, just doing something to help kids keep them right, keep them straight, keep their mind out of trouble and stuff of that nature. And so and that was my biggest focus is always working with children. And so what got me into one run for mayor was the fact that, I thought it was time for a change, and I thought I could make a difference. I didn't know how I was gonna make the difference, but I say I just tried to use my creative mind, work with my board commissioners. And, hopefully, together, we can make this town a better place to be for everybody.
What does Weldon look like? Where is it positioned?
Well, Weldon is in the northern, the northern the east northern part of the county, Tallahassee County. This is known for its, waterways. The road no river runs right through the edge, the outer bounds of, Wellington on the eastern side. And so and that's what we are trying to develop. Wellington is known as the rockfish capital of the world. Okay. You come and, you know, that's how we got out. The rockfish would come all the way up here to the dam and spawn, and then they'll turn around and head back out to the ocean. And so and it's a big season for rockfish. People come from everywhere just to try to catch one or two rockfish, and and, I didn't catch men's day at night. We don't wanna keep, whatever there. Regulations say they could keep one or two at the given time.
Well, so that's important that this is a riverfront community, which usually means a lot of history. You mentioned it's a very old town, but it can also figure pretty greatly into the future of a community. So the Roanoke River what is what is the Roanoke River worth to a town like Weldon? Because I assume you see this river as a a major asset.
Roanoke River is is very immense. It's, to Weldon. We we use it as for recreation mostly, but for attraction. On the Roanoke River, we from Roanoke Rapids to Weldon, we've developed what we call a canal trail where you can walk right along the waterfront back in and take a walk to meet and visit. We're in the process of extending that, trail and calling it the a broad walk, And we're trying to gonna intend that, extended southwardly along the river and trying to put we're gonna put a little park in there at at the end. So that's what we're working on now, trying to get all the final detail. What's so long? We just need them tonight. So we're gonna try to get that project out. We got some fun things and also and so we wanna make it look, like a place where you you can don't have to go to the edge of the water just to look down the river. We want to try to open it up, flatten it out, put it on the boardwalk, but you can actually look at the river all the way down and which will attract people from everywhere because people are attracted to water. Let's face it.
Yeah. Well, you know, we just had our conference, our annual conference in Downtown Wilmington and and looking at what they've done with the Cape Fear River and the boardwalk and how much of a magnet that is for tourism and people who wanna sightsee. I mean, it's a beautiful place to spend any afternoon or evening. So this is something that could bring people to Weldon, make Weldon a a destination. So I I'm sure you've seen change occur in Weldon over the years looking back. But if you looked ten to fifteen years into the future with the river kind of being leveraged as an asset, what what is Weldon becoming, do you think?
I really believe ten years from now, Weldon will become a restored township. It probably would not be like it was in the older days, you know, with with mom and pop stores and property, you know, it'll probably be more technical stuff, things of that nature. But we look for business to come in and, you know, and and grow our town. And so I I look forward to it because of the tourism, because of what we got with the waterfront, people coming in and come coming out. And they somebody gonna catch on fire and and say, I got an idea how we can do this in welding because of better town. Right. And I think that's what we are that's what we are focusing on. We're praying and hoping that the riverfront will actually, you know, restore or renew people interest in the town of Weldon.
So developing a boardwalk to to connect people more with the river, could you talk about the funding and how Weldon, maybe what the price tag is and how Weldon is able to put something like that together?
Well, there was a grant, that we received. We put applied for and received a match strength and everything. And, and but we don't we didn't have to put up none but, you know, a portion of it. But the project the total project is gonna be about $1,500,000 project, and, most of that will be caused by the, the grant that we received. Trans let's just call it transform transformation grant.
The world transformation grant. Right. So one question that might come up if you wanna be a tourist community and attract more people is, you know, and and potentially want people to stay overnight is where do tourists stay? Are are there accommodations like that? Airbnb or anything of that sort?
Well, that's part of the plan. Right now, we don't have comp, we don't have a a accommodations or hotel, room tour, hotel or motel, in Wheldon.
Just a quick editor's note, the mayor did tell me after the interview that there are a couple motels located off I 95 right in the area, just to clarify.
But here's the good news. We already approved and got got it in action that there's gonna be two hotel built back by I 95 exit in Weldon. And so that should be big comfort to us in the future. People wanna come, they have a place to stay, and then we wanna we're gonna be putting up ways, finance lines Mhmm. To which would direct people to the waterfront and downtown wealth historical wealth. Whether it be at the distillery that just came in second place in there. The, whiskey taste test, you know, has been there for the next seven years now, and, but they've been doing a great job restoring the waterfront. Yeah. They had the rivers Riverside Mall, there, with a lot of antique stuff, you know, consignment things. A lot of things going on over there. And then, you know, it'll just bring people when they see the signs and everything, and then they're able to stay as in next two years. It's gonna be a big change. Also, we got Roseborough. Roseborough had came in, and, they got ready to build a wood plant process and wood plant. So, it's gonna probably create a couple 100 jobs, you know, and and that's what we're looking for with that kind of development on on that end right next I ninety five. So we got a lot of things coming in place. That's so many they're different things. I can't name them all, but they're they're blending together to help make everything work together.
Right. So that's using Interstate 95 and and, obviously, recognizing that as an asset as well. And if, you know, the the interstate brings people to the town, make it a a stop along the way, get the accommodations, revenue, and, and then connect them to the river. It makes it a place that people wanna visit and stay.
That's correct. That's what we're hoping. Now, also, in the county, we have a community college, and the community college of the county called Halifax Community College. And it lies right in the midst of, the time of Wellton. We have we have that resource for people to come. They wanna come. We got they got a school that they could go to for their kids they could send their kids to that's, what they could do that might not wanna go to a four year school. So we have a great institution where they got chance to take in all different skill sets and, getting, their certificate for them.
So the the positives of this are are pretty huge. Over time, you know, you may also log some challenges along the way. Are there many challenges that you've seen? And, I I know it's not as simple as snapping your fingers and saying we're a tourism community. You have to do the work. But what what are some of the challenges that you're coming across?
Mostly, now it's funded. You know? We got great ideas and things of that nature. So we got some very good people at the, tourism center who've been working on grants and and, you know, getting us getting these different fundings to, help perpetuate, the the concepts and the idea that we have for welding. And so and so forth, they've been doing a fantastic job in getting funding in force without it actually, having to use, I was, printouts. And I'll say I give thanks to those two people that that tourism, son of Lori Melton and Kathy Scott. And then I wanna take my hat off to, Michael Ray. Really, very instrumental in helping us to, receive some of these funds in abundance. Michael Ray is, you know, house NC House representative.
So this ties in with the state and visit NC. And what what how has the town interacted with the state in that regard?
With the state right now. So the state has a, they have, used rivers front property, throughout the county, different areas, and they it's called, like, a riverfront trail. And we have we have became a member of that initiative, and they have adopted us into it. So and whether you be down at Fayetteville, at Cape Fear, Wilmington, Cape Fear, you know, whether you be here or whether you be in Tarboro. You know, wherever the rivers run. If you're a part of it, they they have an initiative to try to get you to, you utilize the resource to you that is very good, which are the rivers in in the state of North Carolina.
So when is the the the boardwalk project along the river, when is that supposed to wrap up?
I cannot give you a projections. We see it in the beginning stage. We have blueprints, that that, is that always on display, things of that nature. Once I started meeting today was to utilize these funds and everything that we received and, and to keep going on the project, building it as we go, and making sure that we can continue the project. As you know, new fund is start from, from the state, that may be handed down state or federal to us, but it start July 1, which is still tomorrow. Mhmm. So they might we might even apply for funds starting tomorrow, and we will be, trying to get extra funds to make sure these projects keep going. We don't want them to stop. So how do you and the community plan to to celebrate when when you do actually complete the project? Well, they haven't gotten that far yet. But we if you talk about making sure that the community is very inclusive, we we we always have a little more of a touchdown meeting. We inform we've been very informative and let them know exactly what the projects are and get information out to them. And, also, they know they are excited. Once I talk to, they're very excited to have two hotels gonna be built. They don't have other opportunities of business on that same track of land that would that could be there that is already up for sale as commercial property or lots. And so, you know, we got, you know, a wellness is a small town, probably about 1,500 people. And we are trying our best to make sure we be inclusive. We grow together as a family. And so and that's what we wanna make sure. We include everyone, each and everyone, want them to know what's going on so we can participate so we make the right decision
for our town. So that'll be my last question. How has the community itself helped to shape this project? Oh, we got a lot of help from the community.
They're giving their ideas, their advice. They come to town hall meetings, and they tell us what they think about what's going on in Weldon. And we got committees that have been put together. We got the WIA, which is called, the Welding in Action Committee. They they but they, come together to try to make sure they do things or suggest things that will unify the town, structurally and as well as, busily. Know, that talk about different things. We got other people who comes in and and want to invest into welding, and, they buy some of the property so that they can, revitalize it. And so a matter of fact, I've got one person. He's got a building, and he said he's he would think about bringing a bank back into wealth. So they've been working on it. It's old BB And T Building. And so, you know, it's things like that where people are really showing the issue. They see that wealth is on the move. They see that wellness trying to make a comeback, and they see great things and great possibilities in wealth.
Well, mayor, I wanna thank you for your time. If there's anything I didn't ask, I wanna give you the floor for anything that you wanna say or any any parting words for people listening, but, I really appreciate the time you've given us.
Well, I thank you, mister Brown, for for this interview. And I just like to say, you know, there's you just gotta come to Wheldon. When you come in off I 95 Exit 173 head east, and we're we we in the process having wayfinding signs where you need to know how to get to downtown Weldon, revitalize Weldon. And I want you to come through Weldon to visit I want you to go down to the waterfront and check out the waterfront, all the different things that we got going on there and how it looked, you know, and and just go now historical well on Washington Avenue where we have our post office. And and on the next block, we got stores and business, grocery stores, flower shops, and things. And then 300 block under the 100 block will be, the Town Hall. That's where my office is. I want everybody to come in. Feel free to stop in to see me, and I can give you a tour of the town so that you can understand welding and, like, welding. We can just walk it and see what what happen. I think they'll be impressed with welding.
Thanks for listening. Thanks to Mayor Cradle of Weldon, North Carolina, where I do plan to visit for some photography in the near future. One thing I personally enjoy is finding a small town I've never been to, drive to it, get out on my feet, and just walk the downtown with my camera, just to see what it presents and to capture the aesthetics of it. So kind of appreciate the town as an artistic subject, which they all are, all cities, small and large. And so what can we do with these canvases we have? You know, how do we adapt the picture to what it needs to be as times change? That's what this podcast is all about, municipal equation, cities and towns adapting to changes of all kinds. What ideas and stories can we share that might help? I hope you enjoyed this episode and listening to a peer in municipal government who clearly shares the vision that we can do great things with towns of any size. If you have an idea for an episode of Municipal Equation, please send an email to bbrown@nclm.org. So that goes to me. My name is Ben Brown. Bbrown@nclm.org. NCLM stands for North Carolina League of Municipalities, working as one, advancing all. N cl m dot o r g. And we will see you next time with a new episode. Thanks for listening. This has been.