www.madisoncounty-nc.com	April 2003

Kylie Sams, 2002 Chamber Scholarship recipient Reprinted courtesy of the News-Record and Sentinel Annual Chamber Scholarship Award Kylie Sams was awarded the 2002 Madison County Chamber of Commerce Educational Scholarship. She is attending the A-B Tech Nursing Program and plans to graduate in May. The annual scholarship will be awarded later this spring by the Education Committee. Anyone interested in being considered for the $500 scholarship award should contact Debbie Capps at 689-2667 or you can pick up an application at either A-B Tech in Marshall, or Mars Hill College. Applications are due June 15, 2003. New Horizons Relocates by Andi Brockmann New Horizons Realty is relocating its Mars Hill office. As of April 15, the establishment will be located at 745 Carl Eller Rd., situated between Madison Cleaners, and Cookies and Cream. New Horizons, established in 1998, is Madison county’s largest realty company, serving the entire 452 square miles of this rapidly growing county from it’s two offices in Marshall and Mars Hill. This progressive company, owned and operated by the husband-wife team, Bill and Carolyn Eckstadt, is making a stand in real-estate philosophy. New Horizon’s is a privately owned company that specializes in personal service, the success of which is being demonstrated by their expansion and relocation to an establishment that enables them to triple in size.		Local Businesses are Essential Elements in Improving Economic Conditions Small-small business, or microenterprise has been the backbone of Madison County’s economic landscape since there has been a Madison County! Small family farms and family businesses, individual artisans, craftspeople, builders, equipment operators, musicians, and service providers of every description have struggled and thrived in the rugged mountain terrain. In 2003, many of us look at the glitz and glitter of the modern world and think well, all that has been fine and good in its time, but we’re looking at unemployment and old homes in disrepair. We’re looking at a market for local businesses and a tax base to support public services that aren’t growing very fast. We have a river and a railroad and I-26 about to be completed. We see big money coming into neighboring counties, a mega-mall going up in Spruce Pine, airport expansion in Asheville. Upscale housing developers are eyeing our large tracts of buildable acreage. We have established a full-time position in County government to promote and manage economic development. And our community is sharply divided as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, fraught with danger or ripe with promise. The answer to that, of course, is that it’s both. We neither want to turn into New Jersey nor do we want to be left behind as genuine opportunities to improve the quality of life and ensure a positive future for our children pass us by. One of the advantages we have in Madison County is that we’re at the beginning of the process. We’re not going to wake up tomorrow to find that the wooded mountainside and pastureland has become a never-ending vista of condos and parking lots. Or to find that the paycheck from that great new steady job isn’t enough to afford to live here any more. Or to find that we have to close our shop because some big corporate chain down the road can under-price and out-amenity us. At least not yet. Development is going to happen; how it happens is still up to us. Our local businesses are not an anachronism in this corporate-technological age, but an essential element in stabilizing and improving economic conditions and opportunities at the local level, and connecting them to the larger resources and dynamics of the regional — and now global — marketplace. Madison County could become a model to other communities facing similar circumstances and challenges by incorporating this emphasis into its economic development planning from the beginning. These are strengths that we have a rare opportunity to build on, rather than diminish in the wake of limiting our focus and resources to the large corporate-commercial sector. To realize this positive potential, county government, residents, and small businesses have to work as active partners in both planning and implementing economic development goals. While the public sector has to reach out and be responsive, the rest of us have to be willing to pay attention and participate. Dr. Deborah Louis is an independent consultant in public interest planning and development, and teaches politics, sociology, public administration, and business at the college level. She is owner/operator of Kokopelli’s Daughters, a national consortium of professionals who assist developing community organizations and microentrepreneurs and serves as CEO for the nonprofit Homestead Community Land Trust which hopes to contribute to the preservation of both acres and families in Madison County. She works from home in Marshall and loves the mountains.

	Madison County Chamber of Commerce - PO Box 1527, Mars Hill, NC 28754 - (828) 680-9031
	Home  |  Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4