Inside: School board discusses county's water increase • Page 3A
THE WEEKLY
BY THE UNION COUNTY WEEKLY
Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 • Vol. 1 • No. 2
Help wanted Application deadline approaches for town manager search by Kayla Berenson kayla@cmgweekly.com
WAXHAW – One of Ron Pappas’s biggest goals was to hire a town manager within 90 days of being sworn in as mayor. After one month, it seems like the town may meet that goal. The town manager plays a key role in Waxhaw, managing staff, working with commissioners, coming up with innovative ideas to manage the town’s revenue and growth while boosting economic development and interacting with citizens. Town commissioners have been concerned with Waxhaw’s residential-to-commercial tax base ratio, which is 93-7. This ratio is 75-25 in some surrounding towns. In others, it is 50-50. Pappas said one of his long-term goals is to work to resolve this issue. However, this goal needs to be accomplished with the work of a town manager. The town appointed Erskine Smith as interim town manager in July 2019 after Greg Ferguson resigned from the position. Ferguson served as town manager for two years. Smith Previously, Warren Wood served before accepting a position as city manager in Hickory. The first and longest-standing town McLaurin manager of Waxhaw was Michael McLaurin. 2006-2014: McLaurin’s Perspective Before McLaurin stepped into the role of town manager, Waxhaw was run by a town administrator, who had a different type of authority compared to a manager. Once the administrator stepped away from the role, McLaurin said Waxhaw brought in Union County’s economic development director to help the town. They then brought McLaurin in as an interim town manager before promoting him to a permanent position. McLaurin said when he first got to Waxhaw, the town had a very small police department, had no full-time planning staff, had small public works departments and relied on the county for many of its services. His goal was to take Waxhaw to the next level by building up staff capacity in personnel and training, as well as interacting with citizens. “I was very accessible to the public,” McLaurin said. “I gave my cell number out. I always had a rule that if you came to town hall and didn’t have an appointment, you automatically had an appointment because I was available to see anybody that came to see me.” Waxhaw was in the beginning stages of building a commercial tax base while McLaurin was town manager. McLaurin said at the beginning of his tenure, Waxhaw’s reputation as the equestrian and antique capital of the world was beginning to die down, while more full-time merchants and restaurants came in, which McLaurin labeled as “quality commercial.” This began the formation of the Waxhaw small-town experience that people sought out when visiting, along with events and festivals put on by McLaurin and staff to showcase the town. McLaurin said commercial development usually follows residential, but see MANAGER, Page 3A
Janet and Kyle Baker explain their Sospeso Coffee Roasters concept to the Union County Chamber of Commerce in June 2017. WW file photo
WAXHAW'S 100
BIGGEST NEWSMAKERS OF THE 2010S
Business
We flipped through dozens of pages of Union County Weekly to find 100 newsmakers that made Waxhaw memorable from 2010 to 2019.
Above: Pat Kahle, (left) executive director of the Union County Chamber of Commerce, has participated in a number of ribbon cuttings in Waxhaw. Right: Superintendent Andrew Houlihan toured 10 Union County schools, including Indian Trail Elementary School, during his first school day in the district. WW file photos
Janet & Kyle Baker: They opened Sospeso Coffee Roasters in 2017. Sospeso Coffee became 4th Corner Bakehouse in 2018. Jeni Bukolt: Her firm conceived of "The HAW,” a nickname & branding campaign for Waxhaw that created a backlash among some residents. Mark Burnett: The ClubCorp COO talked about his firm spending $44 million in 2015 to acquire six country clubs, including Firethorne Country Club. Brian Cillian: He worked as development director for DHD Ventures, which sought to turn an old cotton mill into a live-work-play concept, Cotton Flats. Neil Gimon: He opened Union County's first brewery (DreamChaser's Brewery) in 2016, earning Best of the Weekly & chamber's Rising Star nomination. Pat Kahl: Under her leadership, the Union County Chamber of Commerce went through a rebranding. Chris Platé: Named NC Economic Developer of the Year in 2016, he sought to build industrial & retail in Waxhaw. Anna Stickle: The store manager opened the Walmart Waxhaw in January 2015, defying the mayor's remarks there'd "probably never be a Walmart here." Paul Verica: The Heritage Food + Drink chef helped make downtown a hotspot & culinary destination in 2016, but moved a year later. see NEWSMAKERS, Page 4A
Right: Neil Givon opened The DreamChaser’s Brewery in 2016 in downtown Waxhaw’s old fire station. WW file photo
WHAT'S INSIDE:
INDEX 9 to Try
Old-fashioned
Grounded in fun
Council on Aging offers vital programming, 1B
Provisions Waxhaw conjures nostalgia, 5A
Laughs surpass homers in softball league, 1B
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