Graham Revitalization Economic Action Team

Dolly Parton Imagination Library – There are 209 Graham County children currently enrolled in the program.

RHS Sweet water Restoration Project – RHS Carpentry students have installed a Fitness Trail map and renovated three signs for the butterfly pollinator garden on the RHS campus.

Millcreek House – The RHS Carpentry Class has the Mill Creek house for sale. If you are interested or know someone who is interested in touring the home, contact Susie Beasley at the Graham County Schools Central Office.

GEAR UP Program – The program has been instrumental in sponsoring several educational trips for students during the 2018-2019 school year. Some of these visits have included trips to “The Bodies Exhibit,” the Center for Disease Control, Emory University, and Southwestern Community College. GEAR UP has also assisted with RHS Math Boot Camp, ACT Boot Camp, and “Decision Day” for seniors planning to attend college upon graduation. On “Decision Day” 19 different colleges and universities were represented and 37 students have been accepted to these colleges.

RHS Career and Technical Education - The program has twenty-eight CTE Pathways Completers to graduate on June 2. A pathway completer is a student who has completed four courses in a career cluster with one of those courses being an upper-level course. Several of these students have completed multiple pathways.

Strategic Tourism Plan Implementation–Phase II – Work continues on the implementation of the $100,000 award from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The project consists of four components – wayfinding signage, Downtown Wi-Fi, Buy Local Campaign and online mapping and marketing.

Wayfinding Signage – discussions continue with NCDOT on signage requirements

Downtown Wi-Fi – the Request for Proposals (RFP) was developed and advertised with one proposal being received. Negotiations are being held with BalsamWest to develop an appropriate system.

Online Mapping and Marketing – the Request for Proposals (RFP) was developed and advertised with two proposals being received. Review of these proposals is being conducted.

Buy Local Campaign – the kick-off meeting for the Campaign was held on February 21^{st at Stecoah Valley Center. Information and materials have been provided to local businesses to use to encourage residents and visitors to spend locally. A partnership with the Graham Star to do an article on a local business and a Buy Local advertisement will be done bi-monthly.}

Graham County Broadband Project – Work has started on the implementation of the $100,000 award from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for increased internet service to underserved/unserved areas in our county.

REVVED UP Organization – The newly formed group has been actively working to revitalize Downtown Robbinsville and promoting recommendations of the Reimagining Robbinsville document. Activities include: acceptance into the Downtown Strong Program; creation of the Graham County Garden Club; community garden moving forward, having received more than $35000 in grant funding; plans for the Cheoah Cultural Arts Pavilion are being developed; plans for the re-use of the old VFW are in progress with 2 proposed businesses; a proposed community walking path parallel with Main Street that begins on Ford Street and ending on the Courthouse Square; a proposed pocket park behind the rock façade on Main Street; new business to be opened across from the Church Mouse; Roger's Restaurant is now open; improvements at the Historic Phillips Motel; an eighty foot flag pole with a 20' X 30' flag to be the first phase toward a veteran's memorial will be located near the Urgent Care Facility; plantings to be placed along the railings in and around Robbinsville; new entry point signage to be in placed at 6 locations entering Robbinsville; and clean up/maintenance being planned for the Main Street area.

 

Graham County Substance Use Coalition – the Coalition is organized with bi-monthly meetings and continues to make progress. The next meeting is June 19^{th with a focus on targeted areas and funding sources.}

Medicaid Transformation – The transformation process is underway with contracts being reviewed by the county attorney.

Touch-A-Truck Event – The event is scheduled for June 1st starting at 10 am, $5/person. Lots of heavy equipment, police cars, trucks, food trucks, music, face painting and 5 minute massages.

Employee Worksite Wellness Program – The county employee wellness program has added a new site with Wehrloom Honey. The program offers healthy challenges to employees to improve their health. Challenges can be nutrition, physical activity or inner wellness based. The program has been a successful venture with incentives and participant activities.

Note: Above activities were submitted by the Graham County Health Department

Old Field Gap Road Clean-Up – Volunteers from GREAT, the National Wild Turkey Foundation and Mainspring removed more than 800 pounds of household items and 26 bags of trash from the banks along Old Field Gap Road. In recent years persons unknown have been stopping at the pulloffs and dumping large quantities of refuse. It is heartbreaking to know that people can behave so heartlessly in such a beautiful place. Volunteers successfully removed two tires, a coffee maker, large screen television, a hospital bed, barbecue grill, circular saw, a clothes washing machine, somebody's front door and about 250 pounds of roofing shingles. After filling the beds of two pick-up trucks with items for recycling, a window air conditioner and various pieces of stainless steel, we decided that there was much more hauled up the mountain than we could ever hope to carry away. NCDOT was notified regarding the refuse which had been dumped and pulled out along the road and gladly agreed to come by with a truck to pick up the items too large or heavy to carry away.

 

“The National Wild Turkey Foundation is extremely thankful for the GREAT volunteers who helped clean up trash on our Yellow Creek Property. The property provides habitat for a diversity of wildlife species. It was important for us to remove the trash because illegal dumping can have serious negative impacts on those species. Our partnership with GREAT and Mainspring made the work day a big success,” stated Chris Coxen, NWTF District Biologist.

Clean-up day on the Civilian Conservation Corp Trail – a general clean-up (debris removal, leave removal) of the 1/4 mile accessible hiking trail and the unpaved trail departing from the observation deck trail took place on Thursday, March 21.

RHS Sweetwater Creek Project-Phase III – The project has been focused on in the 2018 Mainspring Annual Report. Funding for this project comes from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation through its Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisans Program. The article can be found at http://www.grahamcounty.net/great/Restoration.pdf.

Santeetlah Lake Trail Work Day – Eight volunteers helped clear the North section of the Santeetlah Lake Trail on Monday, April 22^{nd. The volunteers worked to remove trees and limbs that had fallen across the trail, remove trash and remove mud encrusted from the interpretive sign in the Carver Cemetery parking lot.}

Clean Sweep Activities – Many residents of Graham County also participated in the Annual Litter Sweep along the back roads. A total of 47 bags of refuse were filled and reported by months end.

Kids in the Park – GREAT has submitted a pre-application to the Appalachian Region Commission (ARC) to fund Kids in Parks trails at the CCC trail and RHS Fitness trail. Kids in Parks is a signature program of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.

Clean-Up at Joyce Kilmer Loop – Volunteers with the Partners of Joyce Kilmer and US Forest Service employees came out to the Memorial Forest on Friday, April 26th to clean up the trail and parking area. The road leading into the parking area had many, many trees down from the long winter of rain and wind. U.S. Forest rangers used heavy equipment to move the largest of the downed trees and volunteers helped clear the entry road, opened water breaks along the trail and crosscut and hand sawed trees that had fallen across the trail.