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A power networking session and champagne reception will be held Oct. 6 at The Peninsula Club in Cornelius in honor of Business Today’s 2010 Top Women Business Leaders. The sixth annual event recognizes the contribution of women in business in the Golden Crescent. Former winners include Realtors Abigail Jennings, of Lake Norman Realty, and Diane Honeycutt, of Team Honeycutt in Concord; Pat Horton, president of Cabarrus Bank & Trust; Robin Smith of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge; Dakeita Vanderburg Johnson, CEO of Southgate Masonry & Lumber in Concord; and Ginger Griffin of Ginger Griffin Marketing and Design in Cornelius. Business Today columnist and UNCC instructor Cheryl Kane will conduct the power networking sessions, after which the 2010 winners will receive their awards, complete with champagne toasts. The event, which starts at 6 p.m., is $12.50 to attend, Visa and MasterCard accepted at time of reservation. More info: Phone BusinessToday at 704-895-1335 or email nebiztoday@gmail.com for more information. Registration opens at 5:30 p.m.
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Heart Group of the Carolinas, with offices in Concord and Albemarle, has merged with Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. The practice will now begin operating under the Sanger name. |
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More than 100 Denver area business owners will meet at Verdict Ridge Golf Club Sept. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the annual Denver Area Business Association networking luncheon. Non-members are invited to attend the event which will honor long-time Denver business leader Joe Turbyfill and his wife Jean. Michael Thompson, director of corporate communications for the Charlotte Bobcats, will discuss overcoming adversity in the business world. The cost is $17 for pre-registration at www.dabanc.org or $20 at the door. More info: Denis Bilodeau, dbilodeau@aquestainsurance.com |
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Jim Trogdon, the chief operating officer for NC DOT, will be the featured speaker at a Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday at NorthStone Country Club. Trogdon will discuss local road improvements including HOT lanes, commuter rail and the diverging diamond interchange planned at Exit 28 on I-77 in Cornelius. Tickets are $16 for members and $20 for non-members. More info: 704-892-1922. |
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During its 2009-2010 fiscal year, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College was awarded $2.654 million in grant funding from public and private organizations. From July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the 21 grant awards produced a single-year grant-funding record for the college. Funded projects include scholarships for students with financial need, a major updating of RCCC’s IT infrastructure, the JobsNOW certificate programs, initiatives to develop new curriculum, and programs to help students quit smoking and assist local citizens adversely impacted by changes in the tobacco industry.The funding agencies include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Margaret C. Woodson Foundation, the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation, the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund, the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund, the North Carolina Community College System, the Proctor Foundation, and the N.C. BioNetwork. |
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| LAWRENCE |
What does a professional planner really do to help clients?
Let’s say you want to hold a customer appreciation event but you want it to be more than just a party. Your company’s reputation is on the line. You have to make a decision whether to leave this important function to a professional or to unskilled hands? In this case, a planner can be a valuable asset |
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| DeMAO |
In the last of this three part series, Sherre explains how reviewing your current involvements can help you achieve your goals through putting you in direct contact with your ideal target market, in direct contact with those who could refer you to your ideal target market, or to help you gain needed support or resources for growing your business. |
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Since the dawn of mankind we have been buying and selling “stuff”, and over the centuries a predictable pattern has developed between buyers and sellers. The buyer-seller dynamic can spell “commission catastrophe” for the sales professional who lacks the artful skill of effective questioning. |
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Concept for Hwy. 73 in western Cabarrus has twists, turns
Like a bridge over Coddle’s waters? |
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| Wider, please: Many hope Hwy. 73 will be widened, even over Coddle Creek Reservoir. |
The edge of the world isn’t at property lines, nor at town or county borders. At least that’s how Richard Flowe, a principal of N-Focus Design Inc. in Kannapolis and chairman of the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, sees it.
Flowe recently presented a concept for Highway 73, born of information gathered over the years while working with six clients developing different parts of 73 in western Cabarrus and in accordance with adopted policies in Cabarrus County, Concord and Kannapolis.
Envision a section of Highway 73 that looks like a downtown near Odell School Road, for example. In fact, the N-Focus group has already dubbed it—realistically, Flowe insists—the Downtown Odell plan. “It’s very possible Odell maintains its identity no matter what political jurisdictions do,” Flowe says.
So when will we see this new Highway 73? “Could it happen inside 10 years? Not in this economy,” says Flowe, “But in 20? Definitely.”
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| FLOWE |
Planning is informed decision-making, Flowe says, and he’s sharing the information he’s developed in the hopes of contributing to better decision-making.
“We have an opportunity to create these little communities,” he says.
“When we drive on 73 we see one thing; the future sees another,” Flowe says.
What we see now is basically undeveloped road west of the Coddle Creek Reservoir, with a few homes behind the tree lines, Flowe says. “You don’t notice the intensity of development going on behind those few trees. …
“It doesn’t feel like a developed highway — yet,” Flowe says.
But rooftops are coming, thousands of them with the usual needs of schools, groceries, retail and other stores and services. Government authorities may decide later to create a tax district in response to the multi-jurisdictional growth.
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| New downtown?: Intersection of Odell School and Hwy. 73 |
There won’t be pressure for “heavy, intense” development, Flowe says, because development in the Coddle Creek watershed is highly restricted. The restrictions are greater than those at Lake Norman, for example.
Already nodes or centers of activities that will help define the communities are developing, Flowe says. One is at Odell School Road near the school, Odell Volunteer Department and the Moss Creek development. The other, just inside Cabarrus County at the Mecklenburg line, is at Renaissance Square at Poplar Tent/Shiloh Church roads. A retail mall has been developed and CMC Northeast located a satellite facility near the Cabarrus Crossing neighborhood.
This growth or urbanization of western Cabarrus along Highway 73 was anticipated years ago by officials who codified that land west of Coddle Creek and north of Highway 73 could be annexed and would be serviced by Kannapolis, while the land south of 73 fell to Concord. Along other parts of 73, the land on both sides of the roadway is in either Concord or Kannapolis.
The vision for Highway 73 includes widening the road to four lanes. Approvals and funding for such projects are years in the making, often with delays. But optimism prevails, even for sections where the cost will be higher.
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| RANKIN |
“Ultimately I believe Highway 73 will be widened over the lake,” says Alex Rankin of CESI Land Development in Concord. “It’ll be expensive, but it will happen.”
Connectivity in western Cabarrus and access to I-77 for Kannapolis will need to be addressed, Flowe says. Prospects look good for north of Highway 73 with Jim Johnson, Odell School, Poplar Tent and Shiloh Church roads. However, south of the highway, Harris Road can’t easily be expanded.
Creating a concept for development over multiple jurisdictions is possible, and can work. Birkdale Village is a successful example, Flowe notes, of a community or entity with its own identity and destination factor. Birkdale is located mostly in Huntersville with some of the residential segment in Cornelius. |
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| RUSSELL |
By Bill Russell
Wouldn’t it be nice to pick up a paper and read only pleasant headlines for a change? The news in Washington this week is that we have retired the national debt, unemployment in North Carolina has sunk to it’s lowest levels since 2006, and a group hug broke out in the streets of Baghdad.
Unfortunately that’s not the headlines we read. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the annual difference between what our federal government collects in tax revenue and what it spends will be $1.3 trillion this fiscal year alone. Combat troops are leaving Iraq, however, we are still a stretch from a tension free region. Closer to home, North Carolina’s unemployment rate dipped to 9.6 percent in July and has declined for five consecutive months but still remains higher than the national average of 9.5 percent. |
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| GILROY |
Many of us were chilled to the bone a few weeks ago at what Charlotte City Councilman David Howard said at a Lake Norman Transportation Commission meeting. Howard, a Democrat who has focused on inner city affordable housing issues through his position as vice president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership since 1997, was quoted several times:
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It’s a mixed bag in the luxury market. Some homes are closing at steep discounts, while some pristine homes in superb locations are closing near their asking prices.
Prices per square foot edged upward about 1 percent in Lake Norman during the second quarter vs. 2009 levels, but realized values are still off 20 percent to 25 percent compared to 2007 levels, according to Reed Jackson of Ivester Jackson Distinctive Properties in Cornelius. |
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These home sales and property transactions in the Golden Crescent were recorded by the Register of Deeds in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Iredell. |
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These new businesses in the Golden Crescent have registered with the N.C. Secretary of State. |
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Staff directory, emails, phone and fax numbers along with other general and subscription information |
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