By Tom Harrison

Travel and Tourism Director

The county organized a public meeting a while back in Plymouth to get input from our citizens on how to improve our communities.

Many of our towns and counties in this part of the state are poor. So, what’s to be done? How can we bring prosperity and raise our citizens out of poverty?

There is no silver bullet to end poverty, but I would like to share my thoughts on how we can get on the right track and improve things here economically.

First of all, we need to all recognize what our assets are, understand how to leverage those assets and learn to all pull together, in the same direction.

As John F. Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

I often refer to this quote, popularized by JFK, to point out that there is a ripple effect when we attract new revenue sources to our towns and counties that benefit everyone.

Additional revenue can come from increased tourism, new businesses opening, and new development that provides jobs. Another source of revenue is new residents moving here that expands our tax base and helps fund municipal infrastructure and amenities - if properly managed. Then, if we make a concerted effort to support our businesses and eat and shop local, it further helps increase tax revenue and sustains jobs.

So, how do we make all this happen?

Here are a few of my ideas.

We Are All Ambassadors

Prosperity begins with a positive attitude. Going back to the quote, “A rising tide lifts all boats;” if your boat is sitting on dry ground, it can be difficult to have a positive attitude – whether that is because of financial or personal challenges.

Motivational speaker, John Maxwell says, “The only difference between an obstacle and an opportunity is our attitude.” Choosing a positive attitude and believing we can effect change in our lives, our circumstances and our community is a good starting place.

As it pertains to our community, we should all see ourselves as ambassadors. If we are going to bring prosperity to where we live, we should see the good things we have and cheerfully tell every visitor we meet about them - if given the opportunity.

Go out of our way to welcome visitors and invite them to stay and explore our area. They are all potential investors whether through sales tax, room occupancy tax, or potential residents or business owners. You never know who you are going to meet!

On Highway 64 in Plymouth we have eight restaurants, five gas stations and three motels. Each one is an unofficial welcome center. Employees at these establishments, frequented by tourists, should treat visitors like they are the most important people on the planet.

That will do several things. It will make our visitors feel special; it will make them look at our community in a positive light – and help improve sales, which increases tax revenue.

Count Your Blessings - Hwy 64

Trying to prosper our communities not only requires a positive attitude, as I mentioned above, but we also need to be knowledgeable about our assets.

When asked, “What do you like best about your town?” the most common answer anywhere in America is, “The people”. That is a good thing, but that by itself isn’t going to make people want to visit or live here. Remember, getting people to visit or live here is paramount to improving conditions in our communities through increasing tax revenue as well as creating and sustaining jobs.

So, we have to ask ourselves, “What makes our community stand out from other towns in our area?” so we can be knowledgeable and tell our story.

In the example of a photo of apples, we want to be the red delicious apple among all the golden delicious apples. Using Plymouth as an example, what are our assets?

First of all, Plymouth is uniquely situated between Highway 64 and the Roanoke River Delta. Highway 64 has over 5 million cars per year traveling to the beach. We need to view these travelers as clients or customers. They are temporary taxpayers – and they are a financial blessing.

Think about this for a moment: Plymouth is the largest town (and only town other than Columbia) between Raleigh and the Outer Banks that isn’t on a controlled access highway. We are the only town in which you don’t have to take an exit (and lose time) that has amenities that include those eight gas stations, five restaurants, two pharmacies, and two grocery stores along the main corridor. These are fantastic assets and opportunities.

Count Your Blessings - The Roanoke River Delta

The Roanoke River is special in several ways:

• Plymouth has 1/2 mile of shoreline on the Roanoke.
• The Roanoke River Delta offers some of the best boating, freshwater fishing and paddling opportunities in the state.
• The Roanoke River has been called North Carolina’s Amazon.
• It is the longest river in NC.
• It has the greatest flow of any river in NC.
• The lower Roanoke contains the largest bottomland forest east of the Mississippi River.
• There are over 200 bird species on the Roanoke.
• There are over 50 miles of navigable water and 100 miles of shoreline within five miles of Plymouth in the delta.
• Plymouth hosts over 30 bass tournaments a year.
• Plymouth is six miles from the mouth of the Roanoke where it empties into the Albemarle Sound.
• The delta is arguably the most unique, pristine and extensive freshwater estuary system in North Carolina.

Some local residents have no interest in the Roanoke River and have never been out on the river in a boat. Therefore, many don’t understand its importance because it has no bearing on their everyday lives.

However, tourism is one of North Carolina’s largest industries, generating over $35 billion annually and ranking among the top five most visited states in the country.

So, regardless of our personal interests, all of us need to be united in purpose in our efforts to reduce poverty and bring about prosperity through tourism, supporting local businesses and welcoming new residents. Ideally everyone needs to know about our assets, including the river - and be prepared to share about them with others.

The same is true for any town in America. Residents should welcome visitors, display a cheerful attitude, be knowledgeable about what makes their community unique and memorable, and tell folks about it. In doing so, it increases tax revenue and helps sustain small businesses and provides jobs.

1. Downtown Plymouth on the Roanoke River is a fantastic place for someone to open an outfitting business! There is a great opportunity to offer canoe and kayak rentals, pontoon boats rides, bear tours, Civil War tours, historic walking tours, as well as offer guided hunting and fishing trips. It doesn’t have to end there. Plymouth is unique because eco-tourism is a year-round opportunity. In the winter months eco-tourism kicks into another gear. Beginning with the first full moon in November tens of thousands of snow geese, swans and ducks begin arriving here. The best viewing is late winter at the Pungo Unit of the Pocosin Lakes NWR. Black bears can also still be seen, but less frequently.

There are endless opportunities here in Bearolina!

Who Moved My Cheese?

That is the title of a popular book published in 1998. The short, easy-reading book is a metaphor using two mice in a maze as an example of responses to change.

The two mice are friends who discover someone moved their cheese that has always been there in the same spot each morning. They display a range of emotions including indignation and anger.

Finally, after returning day after day and finding no cheese, one mouse puts on his track shoes and determines to race through the maze searching day after day for new sources of cheese and leaving messages for his friend to follow on the walls of the maze (becoming “the writing on the wall”). But his disgruntled friend refuses to leave the place where his cheese had always been and continues to live in bitterness.

Plymouth’s ‘cheese” was taken away when Weyerhaeuser stopped making fine paper and kraft liner board a number of years ago due to changing market conditions. The heyday of the paper industry in Plymouth we had all relied on went away unexpectedly.

The same has happened all over NC with the textile industry, furniture industry and others. In Plymouth we have been suffering ever since. Many have been waiting for our cheese to reappear. It may never return.

When this type of catastrophe happens to a community, it has to go looking for new sources or cheese.

While we would all like to see a big chuck of cheese dropped in our laps in the form of a large industry coming to our town, that is unlikely - and largely out of our control. It would certainly be a wonderful answer to prayer if it did happen.

Rather than wait and watch our community crumble, some of us have put on our track shoes and have been actively promoting our town and county to attract smaller and easier to find cheese in the form of new small businesses.

I believe the best opportunity for us to replace what we have lost and bring prosperity begins with tourism. As stated previously, tourism is a $35 billion industry in NC — and we have an abundance of resources to promote!

Assessing Our Assets

I’ve talked about the tremendous tourism opportunities here, as well as the eco-tourism opportunities of the Roanoke River Delta. Now, I want to expound more on our tourism opportunities and be sure everyone knows about our other important tourism assets that make Plymouth and Washington County so unique.

Here are some highlights:

• In Downtown Plymouth there are currently four cafes and eight retail shops.
• There are three museums along the river in Downtown Plymouth. What other town has that?
• The Roanoke River Maritime Museum and Lighthouse is a great place to learn about our important fisheries and maritime history, as well as the Underground Railroad.
• The Post O’Plymouth Museum reveals many important Washington County historical events with a special focus on our Civil War history.
• God’s Creation Wildlife Museum and its Bear-Olgy exhibit is a wonderful place to see mounted animals from around the world and learn about our magnificent black bears.
• The Town of Plymouth has nine transient boat slips available on the Roanoke River.
• The Roanoke River Partners was able to have the Roanoke River designed as the state’s first Blue Way State Trail and has camping platforms from Halifax to Plymouth.
• Plymouth is one of five Inner Banks Harbor Towns and offers periodic paddle wheel cruises.
• Along the southern shore of the Albemarle Sound in Washington County is an open air art gallery called “The Cypress of the Shallows” consisting of thousands of trees standing in the giant reflecting pool and perfect for paddlers and fishing.
• Windy Acres Farm petting zoo just minutes from downtown Plymouth has over 70 animals, including lemurs and a kangaroo!
• Nearby Plymouth is arguably the best wild black bear viewing in NC.
• We have the world’s largest black bears living here in Northeastern NC.
• We have the highest black bear densities on the planet here on the Albemarle Peninsula.
• The award-winning National Black Bear Festival is held each year in Plymouth the first Saturday in June.
• Plymouth has a Christmas Laser Light Show at the Plymouth Airport each December.
• The Plymouth Downtown Development Association hosts a First Friday event each month.
• Each September the town of Roper hosts a Peanut Festival.
• Also in September Pettigrew State Park in Creswell hosts Indian Heritage Week.
• Pettigrew State Park has boat access on Lake Phelps and rents canoes and kayaks.
• Pettigrew State Park has miles of hiking and biking trails along Lake Phelps as well as a campground.
• Next door to Pettigrew State Park is Somerset Place State Historic Site, which offers insights into 19th-Century life on one of the largest and most prosperous plantations in the state between 1785 and 1865, producing crops like rice, corn, and lumber. The site interprets the lives of both enslaved and free people, including reconstructed slave dwellings and plantation hospital
• The Davenport Homestead, just outside Creswell, offer a peek into the oldest preserved homestead in Washington County.
• The Outer Banks Racetrack has an active drag strip schedule spring, summer and fall.
• Fishing, paddling and cruising isn’t just available on the Roanoke River Delta. There are wonderful opportunities on Lake Phelps, the Scuppernong River in Creswell, Kendricks Creek in Mackeys and the Albemarle Sound.

As you can readily see, Washington County has a rich history along with cultural activities and many outdoor recreation opportunities.

Here in Bearolina is “where traffic ends and adventure begins!” …Spread the word.

Pulling in the Same Direction

There is another key ingredient necessary to bring prosperity to our communities. It is imperative to our recipe to attract - and keep - what I call the three R’s: Residents, Restaurants and Retail. It applies whether our economy is based on tourism, industry or becoming a retirement community.

That all-important ingredient is support from local governments. It includes elected officials and town and county employees. They can sabotage all our efforts.

When a new business wants to locate here, or Anytown, USA, we should roll out the red carpet, (if it is an appropriate type of business). And, rather than make the process difficult, our town and county employees should do everything in the power to help them every step of the way.

It would be great if there were an employee that could figuratively take them by the hand to each department to introduce them and help process their next steps. A potential new business owner should see nothing but smiling faces and the full cooperation of our government employees. That does not mean overlooking compliance to code or cutting corners. It just means befriending them and making them feel like they have come to a friendly place.

Next comes elected officials. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Electing town council members and county commissioners is not, and should not be a personality contest.

Citizens should elect knowledgeable, intelligent, experienced, pro-business candidates that want to see your community prosper, regardless of race, religion, or gender. If elected offices have never owned or managed a business, how can they run, in some cases, a multimillion-dollar local government? They should have vision and a positive attitude.

A case in point: Last year we had a successful local entrepreneur and developer who, with his sister as the primary investor, wanted to build a $5 million dollar project on the waterfront in downtown Plymouth. It included a two-story restaurant, miniature golf course and docks for boaters. It would provide an estimated 50 jobs and generate over $20,000 a year in property taxes for the town.

The town council killed it. It’s inconceivable, but they did it. The voting majority tripped over an idea that they should impose a permanent bond on the developers for cleaning up the miniature golf course, should it one day go out of business. Ridiculous. The site could be bulldozed in a day.

What was worse was it was death by a thousand cuts while the council frittered away on the decision-making process for over six months.

Finally, the town attorney weighed in and said the bond requirement was illegal. By that time the investors were so incensed that they had already walked away. We lost the largest single investment to ever be proposed in downtown Plymouth. It would have changed our town and spurred investment.

Ironically, the council repeatedly talked about creating things for the youth to do and turned around and killed a half-million dollar miniature golf course. The developers lost over $200,000 in buying land and architectural fees.

This is why elections matter. Vote for competent candidates only! Without the support of smiling government employees and local elected officials, all of our marketing and welcoming efforts by our citizens will be for naught. We all need to pull together and pull in the same direction if we want our communities to prosper.