Business
Sen. Tarte says Davidson toll resolution is helpful
June 10. By Dave Yochum. While it wasn’t as strong as toll opponents had hoped, the Town of Davidson has officially expressed its concerns with the NCDOT/Cintra plan to widen I-77 with toll lanes. A resolution drafted by Commissioner Jim Fuller with input from NC Sen. Jeff Tarte passed 4-0 in front of a packed […]
Cabarrus is a model for how to accomplish critical infrastructure
Cabarrus County has done quite well, thank you, in the world of NCDOT and improvements to infrastructure. In fact, it’s one of the South’s largest transportation and distribution centers, thanks to widening projects to Interstate 85, providing quicker access to both Charlotte and Raleigh. And thanks, also, to a sustained group effort among top business […]
Toll resolution on deck tonight at Davidson Town Hall
June 9. Tonight’s Davidson Town Board meeting may be another litmus test in the battle to defund the $650 million plan to widen I-77 between Lake Norman and Charlotte with the help of toll lanes and a company from Spain. Town Commissioner James Fuller is expected to propose a resolution that backs NC Sen. Jeff […]
Visiting Cabarrus County is a year-round thing
By Michael Mezquida. Cabarrus officials are saying that tourism isn’t just a May and October affair anymore. They cite hotel occupancy rates and other figures prove people are coming to the Cabarrus for more reasons than just racing. And another hotel is in the planning stages of being built in Concord. Homewood Suites, a division Hilton, […]
McAlpine helps put brakes on I-77 tolls
By Dave Yochum. A modest, low-key guy with the mind of a CFO and the heart of an entrepreneur brought the Lake Norman business community together at Michael Waltrip Raceworld in late May to discuss plans to widen I-77 with tolls. If John “Mac” McAlpine V seemed to be preaching to the choir, he was. In […]
Why businesses and their customers should care about tolls
OPINION: A letter from Vince Winegardner In early 2012, I had heard about plans to widen I-77 with revenue derived from tolls. I was not terribly worried about that at the time. I was like most people and thought toll roads where the 50 cent variety used to cover maintenance and subsidize the construction costs. […]
Cornelius to NCDOT: Tear Down This Contract
June 2. By Dave Vieser. The Cornelius Town Board unanimously passed a strongly worded resolution calling on the asCDOT to terminate its contract with Spanish based Cintra/I-77 Mobility Partners to build toll lanes on I-77. The board also said it would consider joining the lawsuit filed by Widen I-77 seeking to halt the toll lanes planned for […]
Review of Excellent Sheep
Author William Deresiewicz grew up in a household that valued education, science, the Ivy League and a brilliant career. He became a professor at Yale University while still in his 30s (he later quit to become a writer). His fierce indictment of elite colleges, overbearing parents and driven students comes from firsthand experience. Deresiewicz portrays […]
Mike Russell is new COO at MadVapes
Mike Russell, the chairman of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, has left Energy United and is now chief operating officer of MadVapes, a $40 million-plus company that was started in Huntersville in 2009. MadVape’s electronic cigarettes help people stop smoking. Mark Hoogendoorn is the founder. The fast-growing company essentially sells liquid nicotine online and […]
Naas, Widen I-77 on Monday night Town Board agenda
You might call it a sea change—a broad transformation—that is under way at the upper levels of Cornelius power: Kurt Naas and the Widen I-77 lawsuit against the toll lanes is now on the agenda for discussion at Monday night’s Town Board meeting. Naas will have 30 minutes to outline the suit which seeks to stop the […]
