Club Business
President Dick O’Donnell convened the meeting. Pete Beck offered a prayer and led us in the pledge of allegiance to the US flag.
Announcements
- Guests: Melinda Fargis, Action Travel, Mebane; Kristi Farrell, Burlington Animal Shelter; Savannah Berntson, President of Western Alamance H.S. Interact Club, and Jason Richmond, Protective PC Security Company
- Tomorrow Brooke will have a birthday. On the 12th the Perkins will celebrate their anniversary.
- Dick shared one terrible joke and one pretty good one.
- Brooke brought us up to date on the wheelchair ramp project. The ramp will cost about $1500. We can build it in a couple of weekends, if we decide to do it. We will decide at next week’s board meeting.
- Next week we will meet in person at BBW. Please let Dick know if you plan to come as seating is limited due to COVID.
Happy Dollars
None this week.
Member Spotlight
Joseph Williams spent a lot of summers on a tour bus, has a degree in broadcasting, and met his wife in Haiti. He was born in 1972. His parents, J.L. and Pat, started an interracial singing group called New Directions when he was young. That is where the tour bus experience happened. He was privileged to experience real racial harmony in that ministry. Joseph graduated from Williams High School and attended Appalachian, where he earned his broadcasting degree. He went to work for his Dad at New Directions, something he never wanted to do. By that time New Directions was an international ministry. Joseph initially was tasked with documenting the ministry’s work using video. They went on numerous trips to Haiti as part of work teams. That is where he met his wife.
Eventually Joseph moved into management at New Directions International. When J.L. stepped down from leadership, he passed the baton to Joseph, who changed to ministry focus to distributing food and Bibles. The new name became Feed the Hunger.
This year the pandemic has reduced their food packing ability by 25%. Rotary has funded and helped pack food over the last few years. Hopefully we will have a Rotary night for packing soon.
Mac Williams, President of Alamance Chamber of Commerce
Mac Williams has been a member of our club since 2005. He served as president 2011-12 and is a Paul Harris Fellow. He has also been the President of the local Chamber for the last fifteen years. He also serves as the county’s Economic Developer. Prior to moving here, he was the Economic Development Director for the City of Asheville. Before that he served as the Economic Developer for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. He has over forty years experience in this field. He is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and the Institute for Organizational Management at the University of Georgia. Additionally, he has credentials from the International Economic Development Council. He resides in Elon with his lovely wife Stephanie. They have two daughters. He loves to play golf in his free time.
Housing continues to be in high demand due to a growing market. Home improvements are up, too, which may account for the high price of lumber. Twin Lakes and other apartment complexes going up illustrate the growth coming to our area. Job opportunities and retirees fuel the growing numbers of people coming to the county. We have good health care, airports, community, and weather. We are also in a growing part of the state with good demographics.
Retail is good for some and terrible for others due to the pandemic. It’s difficult to make a rule as to why. As the debate on the relief package continues to be delayed, it could seriously hurt some businesses.
The Chamber has been busy on the economic development front. The UPS project has been considering our area. We have completed the local incentives process and are awaiting their decision as to whether to put a sorting hub here in the NC Commerce Park located across the interstate from GKN. This would help the local economy by providing 450 full-time jobs along with around 1000 part-time jobs.
Mebane has done well on the Orange County side of things. MedLine is building a million SF distribution center. ABB Electrical and Morinaga America Foods have located there, too. Our our side, Lotus Bakeries and Airgas have come.
Ten new businesses are coming into Burlington downtown, similar to what has happened in Mebane and Graham. Peter Bishop shared a couple of weeks ago about this exciting development. Graham is also growing, despite the controversy associated with the statute. Downtown Elon has been struggling to overcome the negative effect of COVID-19.
From what Mac is seeing, when we move forward out of the pandemic, growth will go forward like gangbusters. COVID has been the restraining factor, and once that is out of the way, we will see it take off again. If it goes on too long, it could generate unwelcome long -term effects. Once the election is over we should see a surge.
Activity in Guilford County is also very high. A couple of businesses are going into the Rock Creek Center. All of this indicates a very strong economy for this area. One negative is the closing of a paper tubing plant in Elon owned by Sonoco. That will leave an empty building to market.
Local employers are challenged by a lack of people wanting to work. That will likely change as unemployment funds run out. The merger with Cone Hospitals and Sentara will be a big deal. Sentara has its own insurance product which will expand what is available to our market.
Haw River has experienced success by re-purposing old cotton mills into living and retail space. This is being duplicated elsewhere as more space goes on the market. Kristi Farrell mentioned that the Animal Shelter has increased their capacity house animals and do surgeries.
Grandmaster Lee asked Mac about the future of Alamance Crossing Mall owner CBL Properties, which is considering declaring bankruptcy. Mac said all retail is under a great amount of pressure. He hopes some new entity will take over from CBL. Amazon sometimes takes over some of these big box buildings. When the old Sears building is demolished and replaced by Publix, it will change things at the mall. The bowling alley is gone to make room for Liedl. We will have a real “food fight.”
The local chamber is still very active despite COVID; although most of what is offered is virtual. The golf tournament will be in person on October 23 at Indian Valley. A leadership series is coming in October. The Chamber recently had a candidate forum. Toronto morning the six county commissioners will present their views. Leadership Alamance just concluded.
Conclusion
Dick reminded us that people do business with people they know, like, trust, and respect. He asked us to try to attend next week at BBW. Please RSVP. We are limited to 25. Michael Brown is our newest member. Welcome, Michael! Let’s keep inviting people. Dick closed the meeting by leading us in reciting the Four Way Test.
Exit to serve.