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Thursday, July 5, 2018
• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Volunteers build garden oasis for Holy Angels by Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
A group of hard working college student volunteers from the Build America Team were at Holy Angels in Belmont last week where they constructed a beautiful “sensory garden” for residents. The garden will give Holy Angels residents and their families a place to sit under cool shade trees, enjoy a large wooden pergola with water mist, smell lovely flowers, hear the babbling water in a small stone pond, swing in swings, and generally commune with nature. Build America is a sixweek Pi Kappa Phi fraternity team event traveling the country promoting accessible recreation for people with disabilities. It is among the core service projects events hosted by The Ability Ex-
perience, which is based in Charlotte and is committed to enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. The Holy Angels volunteers were from as far away as California, Texas, and Colorado. Build America member Chuck Paschal explained why he and his fellow students pitched in. “It's different for every individual,” he said. “But most of us are team members because we want our fraternity experience to be meaningful. Most of us will be changed by it.” Throughout the summer, the team will log over 4,000 man hours, save camps and communities $50,000 in labor costs, over $30,000 in materials expenses, and impact the lives of thousands of people with disabilities. The Holy Angels vols started several weeks ago in Pennsylvania
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Cramerton and Mt. Holly approve FY2018-2019 budgets By Alan Hodge Alan.bannernews@gmail.com
The Build America Phi Kappa Phi team was at Holy Angels last week where they constructed a new garden and outdoor space for residents and their families. Photo by Alan Hodge and will finish their summer of projects on July 28 in Chicago.
Holy Angels VP of support services Todd Garrett praised the Build America
garden project. See HOLY ANGELS page 3
After much sharp pencil ciphering, the Town of Cramerton and City of Mt. Holly have approved their respective FY2018-2019 municipal budgets. Town of Cramerton budget revenues include General Fund at $4,514,100 and Stormwater at $57,700 for a total of $4,601,800. Cramerton’s tax rate will remain unchanged at 47.5 cents per $100 of valuation. The budget contains several major capital projects. See BUDGET page 4
N.C.’s oldest general store has a link to Belmont By Alan Hodge alan.bannernews@gmail.com
If you want to see what a community dry goods and hardware store looked like 100 or more years ago, then you need to hop in your car and head for Washburn General Store near Bostic in Rutherford County. Washburn General Store is the oldest, continuously operating, family owned, retail business in North Carolina. It was first established in 1831 as a tavern on the LincolnRutherford counties stagecoach line by Benjamin Washburn, and has been handed down through brothers and sons to his current owner great-great nephew Edward Nollie Washburn III. The National Department of the Interior inducted the General Store, the family mansion, a classic wooden barn built in 1915, and several other buildings as a historic district in 2002. The other structures include several rental houses, a funeral home, a 1915 powerhouse, and a pump house. The Washburn family mansion-house located across the street from the store has a twin in Belmont, the Albert Hand House at 211 N. Main St., that was built in 1907. In 1914, Nollie Washburn traveled to Belmont and bought a copy of the Hand House blueprints for two dollars. A Washburn ledger reveals that it cost $8,005 to build the house. Materials for the massive Tuscan columns on the front porch cost $240. Slate for the roof set Washburn back $226 and maple flooring another $117. The store's present location opened in the late 1920s. It's the fourth building the business has been in. The Store’s original building actually stood on the other side of the Washburn’s Crossroads to its current home. It began as a See WASHBURN page 2
Washburn General Store near Bostic is the oldest continuously operating family retail business in North Carolina. Photo by Casee Freshour
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