| |
Our goals were to help the people of the community to clearly understand the situation and determine what to do about it; to guide our local
rural community into the emerging global marketplace, explor its opportunities, but retain its character and heritage.
We saw the need to revitalize our community, and we asked our friends to:
- Commit to the process by putting their personal credibility on the line.
- Risk beyond their comfort zone to bring others into the process.
- Ask skeptics to withhold their judgment and give the collaborative process a chance to work.
- Help to build a team to design and launch the process.
We then asked our friends to work with us to:
- Brainstorm ideas without creating agendas.
- Put facts on the table about our local situation.
- Examine our assumptions and beginning ideas.
- Determine what we can learn from the success and failures of other places similar to ours – benchmarking not copying.
This allowed us to develop these goals and objectives:
- To promote and implement trails, parks and greenways programs.
- To promote and implement Smart Growth principles for community development through design criteria leading to a town master plan.
- To promote the future growth of the town by identifying and justifying areas for annexation.
- To create a re-vitalization program for the commercial downtown district in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and the
Downtown Business Association.
- To promote and help facilitate the development of the Andrews Airport.
- To promote civic, cultural and historic facilities especially the Valleytown Cultural Arts and Historic Center and the Visitors
Welcome and Heritage Trails Interpretive Center.
- To promote and help facilitate a Safe Haven Initiative that will involve the participation and cooperation of town government, the
civic and educational communities and private business.
- To work with all Valley River Valley communities and Cherokee County to address affordable and work force housing issues.
- To research and address any and all possible solutions to maintaining our rural environment and open space by preserving farming,
creating equestrian stables or ranches, nature and/or wildlife preserves.
- To assist the Town Council in procuring and revitalizing the former hospital complex into a municipal resource center.
- To assist in creating awareness of local workforce educational and work opportunities in county-wide industries.
In the ensuing years, some of our goals have been realized, while many have changed with the times and the circumstances. However, we
have continually served as a catalyst for change and we are just as committed to the betterment of Andrews, and the Valleytown Township
as we were in the beginning.
On day 3 of the 2009 Earth Week celebration in Andrews, North Carolina,
Richard MacCrea conducted a seminar about home construction and design that
exploits environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. This
"green-motivated" approach to designing homes helps reduce energy bills and
fosters a responsible way to co-exist with our global home. The seminar was
held at the Andrews Valley Initiative office in downtown Andrews, North
Carolina. The earth week celebration was primarily organized by Eve Miranda.
She was given generous support by many within the local community.
Photos by Ronda Birtha
|
|
|
