Citizens of Cooleemee and surrounding communities are invited to attend one or more of the “Community Design Workshop” this Saturday at 10: 00 AM, 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM at the VFW Hall located at 7722 NC Hwy 801 South. Plenty of refreshments will be available for each 2 hour session.
With over 330 original mill houses, the Bullhole and dam at RiverPark and the old cotton mill still standing along the banks of the South Yadkin River, Cooleemee is perhaps the best preserved Southern mill village of the post civil-war industrial age. Cooleemee’s mill, built in 1900 at the height of the South’s mill building era, closed in 1969.
This is your chance to help shape the future of Cooleemee
The Community Design Workshops will provide an opportunity for residents to share their ideas and dreams for the mill while learning what the redevelopment process will look like. Every idea presented will be recorded and the collection of ideas will be used to pursue potential development strategies to remake the Cooleemee Mill into the economic engine that built this community.
Outstanding Resources Available Saturday
Mac Jordan the developer of Saxapahaw Rivermill and architect Andrew Idatridis will be at the workshop to explain the stages necessary to redevelop the mill – from design, marketing, finding investors and utilizing historic tax credits.
Local architect John Fuller and Cari Hopson, a community planning advisor from the North Carolina Department of Commerce will be there to help residents think about how to preserve the places and streetscapes that they most appreciate and cherish in Cooleemee. Residents are asked to bring photographs of Cooleemee streetscapes, landscapes or vistas that are beautiful or unique.
Cooleemee Town Clerk John Chandler will be there to help residents discover how this project will affect their community and their families.
Lynn Rumley, Mayor of Cooleemee and the Mill Project Leader will be on hand to share the long term goals of the mill project and to discuss residents’ ideas and concerns in an effort to build consensus across the community. A shared vision of what Cooleemee envisions for itself 20 years down the road will go a long way to helping turn that dream into a reality.
Please plan on attending one of the 2 hour sessions
If you are a resident of Cooleemee or the greater Cooleemee area, please plan to attend one of the Community Design Workshop session on Saturday, May 18th to begin building the future of this wonderful community.