Grassroots of Tarboro

As I was growing up, a little girl in the 1950s, my mother often used the phrase "Don't rock the boat".  It was just another of her "rules for fitting in" that went along with the sayings, "Don't make waves", Just accept things as they are", "Don't cause any trouble",  "Do what you are told without question".  After all, my mother was teaching me how to fit into "polite society".

Well, my poor mother (Bless her heart) is still alive and still wondering where she went wrong.  Her precious little girl never DID listen to what she said.  In fact the rebellious teen phase of doing practically the opposite of what my parents have tried to teach has been going on for decades. 

Today someone thanked me for all that I'm trying to do for Tarboro and said to me how great it is that I've come to town. She said "You've really stirred things up", and she meant it in a good way.

I can honestly say, I didn't mean to stir things up here in Tarboro.  I didn't set out with the goal in mind to "make waves" or "rock the boat", but despite my mother's sincere efforts, I never learned to accept things as they  are  IF the way they are is less than what they could be. 

What I'm trying to do here in Tarboro, is help to make the town as great as is should be, as great as it can be.  It's very apparent to me, that doing things the same old way that they've always been done is getting us no where. We need to be doing some things differently. We need to be thinking outside of that darn box! 

As a mother myself, I had a few words of wisdom that I shared with my own little girls and despite the fact that I never thought they listened to me, I once stumbled upon a survey that one of my daughters had filled out.  One of the questions was "What is your favorite quote?".  Much to my surprise (and genuine pleasure) the quote was something I had said.

I told my children, "If you want to be better than average, you have to be different than average."  I never wanted my daughters to try to be like anyone else. I encouraged them to be the best that they could be as the unique individuals that they are.

That's what I want for Tarboro, too. It is my home, and I want it to be the best that it can be.  

Where is Tarboro going to be in 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? 

Does anyone in an official capacity have a clear vision of what we want Tarboro to be?

We know what Tarboro WAS.  Tarboro used to be a thriving town. People tell me all of the time about what "used to be" in Tarboro.  They tell me about the busy downtown on Saturdays when all of the families came to shop.  They tell me "we used to have" this and "we used to have" that.  Tarboro used to have a lot of things that it doesn't have now and that will not be in our future if we don't plan for it and make it happen.

I recently talked to Troy Lewis, Tarboro town planner and asked him "Whose job is it to develop a vision plan for our downtown?" A vision plan to help it to grow in a predetermined direction, to create a finished product that is healthy and successful in attracting people to Tarboro, a vision plan that will guide landlords and property owners to work together with a unified goal in mind for the revitalization of our downtown.

Troy said that it wasn't the Planning Department's job and he thought that perhaps it was the job of the Chamber of Commerce.  Hmmm... I don't think so.  If you look over the Chamber's to-do list, I don't think creating a unified vision for a downtown is on the list. 

So whose job IS it?  If Tarboro were a ship, I'd wonder who is at the helm?  We've got a great crew that keeps us "ship-shape" and "sea-worthy", but who has got the charts? Who knows where we're going? What is our destination?

I realize that the downtown is not the entire town. A revitalized downtown will not solve all of our problems. Even with new shops and restaurants, it will not provide enough jobs for all of our residents who need and want employment. It will not directly improve the quality of our schools.  It will not specifically reduce our taxes or our utility rates.  BUT, the downtown is the heart of the town.  It is what visitors come to see and how they define the health of a town.   People don't visit our town to see WalMart or Lowe's or Sara Lee or Keihin. 

I'm full of analogies today... here's another one.  Imagine Tarboro as our home, our house, our residence.  Stores like WalMart, Food Lion, MaX-Way ... that's our pantry.  Lowe's, Ace Hardware, Henderson Lumber ... that's our tool shed or workshop out back.  SaraLee, Keihin, and the other big employers... that's our office, our place to work.  The restaurants in town... you guessed it, that is our kitchen and in a very few instances, our dining room.  The downtown is our living room.  It is the most important room in the house.  It is not only where the family can spend time together, it is where we entertain our guests.  How we "furnish" our living room represents our personal tastes, it gives a glimpse at who we are, what is important to us and how we live our lives. Our living room must be clean and attractive, it must be comfortable and safe, and it must have things to keep our family and guests entertained.  The visit to our living room must be pleasant and satisfying if we want our guests to return, and when it comes to attracting new permanent residents to Tarboro, our goal should be to have such a nice "living room" that they want it to be THEIR living room, too.

So, back to my original question.  Whose job is it to create the vision for our town?  Who is at the helm? Who is in charge of the living room project?

Sam Noble, if you're reading this, I honestly don't know the answer. Perhaps you know.  I know it's not your job. You are in charge of the "ship-shape" and "sea-worthy" stuff.  Is it the mayor's job to have a VISION for the town?  Is it something that the town council should get together and develop?  Should there be a Downtown Revitalization Commitee? .. and if so, who should determine the committee members?

I just keep flashing back to Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and wondering why those habits are not being utilized in the management of our Town. 

We need a clear VISION statement to "start with the end in mind".  In other words,  we need to have a clear understanding of what we want the finished product to be so that we take the correct steps toward completion.

Whose job is it to determine where we want to go so that we can work together to get there? 

You tell me. I'm asking.

At Monday night's town council meeting, Latham Jenkins gave the preview of the new town website and showed us all the videos he had created to catch the viewers attention and help to promote our town.

He showed how he had posted the videos on youtube.com and stated that he hoped that others with Tarboro websites would embed the videos into their webpages to allow for more viewings.

So I did.

I have created a page for the videos. 

He was missing for over a week and caused a great number of people to fret over his safety and well-being.

I have good news! Today Mr. Shankley returned to The Unusual Shoppe, hungry but in good condition.

If he could talk, he would tell us of his adventure, and he did indeed do a lot of meowing to show his pleasure at being back among those who love him, but we may never know where he spent his week away.

Thanks to those of you who expressed your concern.  We can all sleep better now knowing that Mr Shankley is back where he belongs.

I thought that tonight's town council meeting would be interesting and it WAS! 

As we took our seats we had no idea what we were about to witness and apparently neither did the council members.

Mr Robert Freuler, who had written a letter to the editor of the Daily Southerner, stood before the council and politely but succintly asked them "WHY?" they had given themselves a 33% raise.  The council listened quietly, made no comment, and moved on to other business.

When it was apparent that no one else from the public forum wished to speak, councilman David Smoot , mayor pro-tem, stood up, straightened his suit jacket, announced that he was resigning from his position as councilman for ward 7 and quietly walked off the podium and out of the room. 

Scanning the faces of the mayor, the town manager, and the other council members it was apparently as much of a surprise to them as it was to the rest of us watching from the floor.  No explanation was given so we are all left to wonder about the reasons behind his decision to leave his elected post.