Columbus County Community Chat

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has chosen Columbus County Schools as one of two school systems in the state to be part of a new initiative to discover root causes of low student performance and what the districts’ strengths and weaknesses are.

DPI will send a team here and to Lexington City Schools over a three-year period to find ways to reverse low student performance.

Our hope is that the experiment will be a learning experience for both local educators – and especially for DPI.

DPI has a diminished reputation among the local education community that it must overcome.

For too long, DPI has made decisions from its ivory tower in Raleigh, decisions that have translated poorly to rural areas like Columbus County. Words like “out of touch” and “pie-in-the-sky” are often heard.

It’s no wonder that many teachers left Tuesday’s meeting with a heavy dose of skepticism.

But let’s be positive here. This experiment, which Columbus County is lucky to be a part of, has a chance to work.
At least one good decision has been made already – that this is a three-year process, not a six-month or one-year dog and pony show.

The time spent here will give DPI a first-hand look at what it’s like to educate students in a poor area where issues like low parent involvement and literacy, a lack of emphasis at home on education and poverty-related social ills make teaching a monumental task. We can’t think of a better laboratory than Columbus County.

And it’s not like teachers and administrators here aren’t trying. They are, but when one walks through Wal-mart, for example, and sees a parent or guardian slapping their children around, or realizes what young children are exposed to in movies, music and television, it’s easy to see that education has to be more than reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s so sad to see bright, young people beaten down by a crumbling or non-existent support system, but that’s what teachers are up against.

Our hope is that DPI will truly see this as an opportunity to create something that – in their own words – will be “national model.”

Likewise, we hope that local teachers and educators will participate willingly. The folks at DPI may recommend radical changes, and teachers need to be prepared to embrace them because these changes just might work. Radical change may be the only solution, in fact, we’ll be disappointed if at least a few extraordinary and bold initiatives aren’t tried.

If there’s one catch phrase that must be remembered during this process, it is “open-minded,” and it’s got to be from both sides.

Clearly, what’s being done now isn’t working, in large part because of social changes that have occurred outside the classroom over the years.

Education must evolve with those changes.

It will be a shining achievement for both the county schools and DPI if that evolution begins right here.

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Whiteville officials are trying to revive plans to establish at least one National Registry historic district in the city.

“It’s been proven that historic districts are beneficial to revitalizing downtowns,” said City Manager Josh Ray. He and planner Lainie Johnston have been reviewing the 1997 and 2003 historic district plans for ideas.

Johnston said one of the key steps will be recognizing which areas would be best for the designation.

“Whiteville has an uptown and a downtown,” she said, “plus the Madison Street corridor.

All these areas have different strengths, and their own particular character.”

To gain historic district status, a municipality must submit plans to the National Parks Service highlighting the historic nature of homes and businesses in the target areas.

If the district is approved, the municipality and a local historic district commission writes guidelines designed to maintain the appearance of the area, and to provide an additional tool for managed growth.

Property owners who choose to purchase or restore properties in the districts can be eligible for significant tax breaks, Johnston said.

“When people hear that they can save big money by following historic district guidelines,” Ray said, “they tend to listen a lot more closely.”

Historic districts have come under fire in some cities because of the restrictive nature of local rules. Ray and Johnston emphasized there is no desire to do that here.

“It’s all about promoting the city,” Ray said. “We want to do what we can to improve and revitalize the area. When you get people interested in coming downtown, merchants will provide places for them to go. Right now there’s virtually no place to walk to downtown after dark. There’s no reason, aside from the health benefits, to walk around downtown at night. We’d like to change that.

“If we give people a reason to go downtown after 5 p.m.,” Ray said, “then we’ll see more development.”

Johnston said she is exploring which areas to include in the proposed districts, as well as how far they should extend out from the Madison Street corridor.

“We have a lot of things to examine from the start,” she said. “How far out will it reach? Should we concentrate on one of the three centers first? Do we emphasize business or residential property? There’s a lot to consider before the work can begin.”

Ray also pointed out that some simple beautification tasks will go far toward helping preserve and improve the uptown and downtown areas.

“Something so simple as planting a few trees can make all the difference in the world between a bare parking lot and an attractive place,” Ray said.

Ray and Johnston said the onus of the project rests on the community.

“This isn’t something we’re pushing,” he said. “Right now, there is no historic district commission, and we don’t have a part of town government dedicated to establishing an historic district. It has to be something the people want to do. If the people want it, we’re here to help.”

Johnston pointed to her own hometown of Tarboro as an example.

“For a number of years,” she said, “you couldn’t sell a house downtown. Then the revitalization effort got underway (after the town was flooded by hurricanes).

Now you can’t sell a house in the suburbs. People are reaching out for that neighborhood feeling again, and they like having things within walking distance.

“I grew up being able to walk to the store, and walk to church,” Johnston said. “People are wanting a return to that, and an historic district can help.”

“I think it would be a big boost for the City of Whiteville,” Ray said, “but only if the people want it. The property owners have to be willing to take the steps to make it happen.”

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Mobile homes brought into or moved within the Whiteville City limits will no longer face an age restriction.

The Whiteville City Council Tuesday night passed a heavily modified ordinance that bore little resemblance to the original proposed by City Manager Josh Ray and planner Lainie Johnston. The original ordinance came under fire from owners of mobile home parks who feared it was too restrictive.

Under the new rules, mobile homes must be able to pass inspection by the city building inspector before they can be occupied.

The original proposal, approved last month by council, called for a ban on mobile homes more than 10 years old without special permission. The proposed ordinance, which was created after city staff compared several similar ordinances in the area, was designed to reduce code enforcement problems in the future, Ray said.

Trailers would also have to meet federal wind zone two guidelines due to the county’s proximity to the coast.

Wind zone one requirements are the most restrictive, while level three requirements are approved only for inland areas not susceptible to hurricanes. Homes built after 1994 must be certified by the manufacturer to meet the federal guidelines.

City staff met with mobile home park owners – who could have been most affected by the ordinance change – who complained the ordinance would unfairly punish mobile home owners whose trailers were older, but in good condition. (See full story.)