President Brian Dement opened the meeting. Pete Beck led the club in a prayer and the pledge of allegiance to our flag. Ed Woodall introduced ACC Rotaract’s president, Darion Freeman. She gave a brief report on what their club is doing, which includes raising money for their ongoing project to provide computers to deserving students and for the ACC Scholarship Fund.
Next week Chuck Stedman will provide our program, which will be about the police department’s “shoot – don’t shoot policy.”
Jason Crutchfield was announced as our newest member. He works at PIP Printing and will take Penn Corbett’s place from that company. We were sad to hear that Penn is leaving the club.
Joseph Williams mentioned that Feed the Hunger is planning an August Packathon to prepare 500K meals. They are in the process of raising $140,000 to cover the expense. They need a space and packers, too.
Peter Bishop: Burlington Economic Development Director
Brian Dement introduced our speaker, Peter Bishop, who has served Burlington as our Economic Development Director for the last year. Peter shared with us some of the recent wins for Burlington and Alamance County.
- PRA Group @ Holly Hill Mall
- LabCorp Expansions
- Alamance Foods
- Honda Jet
- Aero Accessories
- Academy Sports
- Battleground Kia
- Hand Ceramics
- Hummingbird 3D
In the downtown area he listed the following expansions and improvments.
- Smitty’s Ice Cream
- United Way
- Impact Alamance
- Burlington Beer Works
- Paramount Theater
- A new co-working space at the old Treasure House
- Scram Furniture
- BN Nano
Peter said that over the past year he has learned several things about our county. The near miss at getting the Toyota Mazda plant shows that we need to be ready for everything and everything counts. He said our people have a lot of pride, but maybe we need to put ourselves forward a bit more. Peter has a respect and admiration for the businesses in the area, especially the ones that have built themselves into large companies. He stressed the importance of partnerships and complementary relationships and how important engagement is.
During the Q&A session, Deva asked about the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assistance Team. Peter said that the city is working on a grant to enable a team of 8-10 people from AIA to work on a plan for the old Western Electric property, which sounds promising.
Posted by Pete Beck