July 2004 Community Profile Smooth Sailing Elizabeth City, economic anchor  of the northeast, welcomes a rising ride of new business opportunities By Kim C. Brafford

A beautiful sunset beckons visitors to the Elizabeth City waterfront

For more than 100 years, people have been stopping in Elizabeth City on their way to somewhere else. Wilbur and Orville Wright visited en route to Kill Devil Hills. Today’s vacationers stop on the way to the Outer Banks or Virginia Beach. But Elizabeth City is working hard to become its own destination — and a permanent one, at that. All of the ingredients are there: a waterfront downtown, cultural opportunities, niche shopping and restaurants, and enough history to keep a buff busy for a week. Set on the banks of the Pasquotank River in northeastern North Carolina, the town is deeply connected to the water. The river carried European explorers to the area in 1585, and by the late 1600s shipbuilding was a thriving industry. Residents have been building their livelihood around the water ever since.

Pasquotank County has been home to the TCOM Blimp Factory since 1940 Learn more: 'Rose Buddies' garner boatload of recognition Putting education first helps Camden County What to see and do in Elizabeth City

“The community’s history really comes from the waterfront,” says Rhonda Twiddy, president of the Elizabeth City Area Chamber of Commerce. “It still is considered the core of the community, not only by our residents, but also by our visitors. Our visiting public is drawn to the waterfront and delighted to find that we have a vibrant downtown that still feels like a part of a small town, with the bank, a courthouse and post office, but with a number of thriving restaurants. . . . It just feels like it’s a today kind of feeling yet it’s steeped in history.”

That history includes several firsts: the state’s first public school in 1705; the first General Assembly meeting in 1665; and Culpepper’s Rebellion in 1677, which some call the first successful rebellion against the English crown.

While its history might entice travelers to visit the area initially, it’s the city’s hospitality that will bring them back. Stop a resident on the street and you’re likely to hear the same story: They visited, they liked, they moved. Elizabeth City, the county seat of Pasquotank, has been listed three times in “The 100 Best Small Towns in America,” by Norm Crampton. The author made his selections based on crime rates, income levels, healthcare, school spending and percentage of adults with higher education.

“We’re known on the waterways as the ‘Harbor of Hospitality,’ and it’s lived every day by everybody who is a resident here,” Twiddy says. “It’s not a cliche; this is one of those towns when you walk down the street, people say ‘hello’ and smile and are very genuine in their welcoming.”

The welcome that visiting boaters receive runs deeper than the river. They are greeted with wine, cheese and roses, and a party is thrown in their honor daily at 5 p.m. The “Rose Buddies” tradition began in 1983, when lifelong resident Fred Fearing came out of church one Sunday and saw several boats in the harbor. He and a friend, who grew rose bushes, decided on a whim to take snacks and flowers to the visitors and thank them for coming to Elizabeth City. Fearing, now 90, and his volunteers have made thousands of sailors feel at home (see story, page 26).

The town’s personal touches are paying off. From 1995 to 2003, the economic impact of tourism in Pasquotank County increased from $20.62 million to $33.31 million, according to the North Carolina Division of Tourism. Occupancy tax collections increased 66 percent from 1997 to 2003. “There is a strong growth in occupancy taxes, so we’re getting visitors to town,” Twiddy says. “We serve a lot of business people as the banks are doing business . . . and we have been experiencing a surge in the last five years of Outer Banks day-trippers. For those of us who grew up here, quite frankly, to find people from the Outer Banks coming to Elizabeth City has been surprising.”

Part of the reason for the surge is that multiple families are staying longer: They rent large houses on the Outer Banks rather than separate hotel rooms, and eventually are looking for something more to do. “In a week’s time, they’re looking for other things — regional draws — the history, geneology, the small-town atmosphere.”

Six million visitors are expected on the Outer Banks this year, which is just an hour’s drive from Elizabeth City. “They’re a 90-plus percent in drive market, so you are looking at people who are going to be coming through or nearby or to Elizabeth City, and we need to make them understand that the region is as much a destination as the Outer Banks itself is,” Twiddy says.

To work toward that goal, Elizabeth City has undertaken a $750,000 downtown revitalization project. With money from the Department of Transportation, the city is making over three blocks with new trash containers, gutters, period lighting, traffic surfaces and brick insets in sidewalks. Waterfront apartments and condominiums are being placed over commercial floors of multi-level buildings.

New businesses downtown are trying to preserve the area’s historic feel. Dru Thompson, an artist, and her husband, Everett, constructed a new building that houses Red Rabbit Art Gallery on one side and his attorney’s office on the other. “That’s a brand new building,” Twiddy says. “It looks like it’s been there for 100 years. They did a fabulous job of putting up a new building and blending in with the character of downtown so that it looks established.”


Growth Came Quickly

Even as the city works to become a destination, its proximity to surrounding areas has been a plus for the business community. “We have lots of growth growing out around the city limits,” says Bruce Biggs, owner of Biggs Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac and GMC Trucks in Elizabeth City.

Camden County is a prime example. An abundance of land, affordable housing, proximity to Virginia, and its school system’s solid reputation are drawing more people to the county, Twiddy says. The population of Camden, which is served by the Elizabeth City Area Chamber, grew by 18 percent from 1990-2000, according to U.S. Census figures. Its schools are either over or near capacity. Residential growth has happened so quickly that there was a building moratorium on new developments for a year (it was scheduled to end in June) while the county commissioned a growth impact study. Further, Camden has hired its first ever full-time planning director to help plot its direction.

Elizabeth City’s population grew by 22 percent from 1990 to 2000, a rate almost twice as much as the state’s, according to figures from the Albemarle EDC. It had 17,490 residents in 2000.

The need for new homes and roads has stimulated the region’s economy during a time when other parts of the state have suffered losses. There is little tobacco, furniture or textile influence in the area, industries whose workers have been hard hit by plant closings and layoffs in other parts of the state.

“The economy overall in this northeast corner, and Elizabeth City in particular, has been good,” says Biggs, who serves on the board of NCCBI. “A lot of our work folks still travel to Tidewater Virginia. A lot of the electrical, plumbing, contracting type folks can find all the work they can possibly do at Nags Head and Kitty Hawk and Currituck. . . . There’s been such a building boom out on that area that lots of the craftsmen that might normally work locally have been working there.”

Elizabeth City is within a 45-minute drive of the aforementioned Tidewater, a major metropolitan area encompassing Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News. Highway 17, which connects Elizabeth City to Virginia, is currently being widened in a project to be completed next year. A new corridor will connect Raleigh to Norfolk, opening up more opportunities for businesses that have one foot in Virginia and the other in North Carolina.

One such business is Gateway Bank, which is headquartered in Elizabeth City. Of its 11 branches, almost half are in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. A 12th is slated to open in Nags Head this month. Ben Berry, who founded Gateway in 1998, believes strongly in regionalism, and the concept has served him well. “Elizabeth City is the largest municipality in the northeast region, in terms of full-time population. . . . And it’s very close to the Tidewater Virginia, or the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Chesapeake market, which has a population base of over a million. So it really serves as the regional hub for northeastern North Carolina, but it is a bedroom-type community for the Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake area.”

Berry serves on the boards of both the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina Northeast Partnership, an economic development group representing 16 counties in Eastern North Carolina, in addition to the NCCBI board. In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau is considering including Pasquotank, Camden and Dare counties in the Tidewater Metropolitan Statistical Area, Berry says. “The people who live here in northeastern North Carolina and in the Tidewater Virginia area, we don’t really see state lines,” says Berry. “We’re all one big happy region.”


Guarding the Coast

The Albemarle Economic Development Commission directs much of its attention to the Tidewater area for luring new businesses to Pasquotank County, says Matt Wood, chair of the Albemarle EDC. Efforts to bring new businesses across the state line include the construction of four industrial parks, one of which is sponsored by county government. The Pasquotank County Industrial Park comprises seven businesses, and two more are planned. Pasquotank is one of the few counties its size to offer local incentives to new businesses, Wood says.

The area has attracted big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Lowe’s, in addition to its small-town specialty shops. Retail sales in Pasquotank County increased 46 percent from 1995-2002, according to the N.C. Department of Revenue.

The community’s work ethic and small-town values make it a desirable place to do business, says Berry. “The quality of life here is excellent. The people are hardworking, conscientious. People get all the amenities of a big city, especially Norfolk. You have the Broadway shows come there, the concerts at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, the major airports.”

Elizabeth City has an airport, too, which it shares with the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard base in Elizabeth City, established in 1938, is the largest in the country. It is also the region’s largest employer, with about 1,600 workers. Aircraft based in Elizabeth City have been an integral part of the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol (formed in 1913 after the Titanic sank), which monitors icebergs that threaten U.S. shipping routes. Elizabeth City’s Aircraft Repair and Supply Center is the only aviation depot in the Coast Guard.

The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Regional Airport has a 7,200-foot runway and can accommodate any size plane. About 150 flights land every month, half of which are business jets used by executives. When President George Bush and actor John Travolta visited North Carolina for the Wright brothers’ centennial celebration, their planes landed there.

Pasquotank County also is home to an unusual type of aircraft as well: the blimp. The Weeksville Naval Air Station became the second lighter-than-air station in the country in the early 1940s, with the approach of World War II. Before helicopters were widely used, the United States needed an aircraft that could carry equipment to protect shipping and defend against enemy submarines. Weeksville was chosen because it was near Norfolk’s naval station and on the East Coast.

Elizabeth City is positioning itself as a regional center for education, healthcare and retail. The area is served by a university and two colleges: Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), College of the Albemarle (COA) and Roanoke Bible College. College of the Albemarle, the first community college in the state, caters to more than 10,000 students a year in seven counties. The college’s small business center offers focused industrial training and a number of programs to help people start their own business and keep employees’ skills up to date.

“We can send someone to a company in Kalamazoo and have them trained on their processes and bring that person back here to get our person retrained or trained to go into that company,” says Lynn Hurdle-Winslow, vice president of corporate and continuing education.

The college is poised to handle the area’s growth, says President Lynne Bunch. “We are very much a small business environment here. We have limited manufacturing and industrial jobs. I think we’re going to see that change over the next several years with the widening of (Highway) 17. I think we’re already seeing it change a lot.”

The college is also playing a role in post Sept. 11 healthcare needs. It received a $30,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Health to work on a bioterrorism pilot program for healthcare professionals. “If something tragic were to happen . . . people are going to run down to the local doctors office or health department and they may not be able to get to the emergency room,” Hurdle-Winslow says. “So we’re looking at what kind of training is needed, looking at that local plan.”

ECSU, which is part of the University of North Carolina system, was founded in 1891 as a teacher’s college. Today it offers 35 baccalaureate degrees and three master’s programs. This year it was ranked the No. 1 public baccalaureate college in the South by U.S. News & World Report.

It is the only university in the UNC system that offers a degree in aviation science. “That was in direct response to a specialization we had in the community relative to the Coast Guard base that is in Elizabeth City,” says Marsha McLean, director of university relations and marketing.

ECSU also has a Small Business and Technology Development Center, which assists entrepreneurs and supports existing businesses. After Hurricane Isabel, the center helped companies get the funds they needed to get up and running again.

The common thread that binds all the services of the community is personalized service. That’s the advantage of being in a small community, McLean says. “Because of our size and . . . being in a somewhat small town, you do get very close to your students. And I think that’s very rewarding for students when you can look back on your college education and feel you had some real bonds and closeness with the academic divisions of the faculty.”


Public, Private Partnerships

Elizabeth City’s corporate community is closely knit. Albemarle Hospital gives time and money to public schools; COA and ECSU provide training for health-care workers; businesses such as Gateway Bank provide scholarships for students going to local colleges.

In another model partnership, COA joined with the YMCA to build the new $6.3 million Zack D. Owens Health Sciences Center/YMCA. COA was the first community college in the state to have such a partnership, and it needed special legislation to do so. The college uses the YMCA’s facilities for physical education classes, and houses its Allied Health and Wellness programs in the health sciences center.

“Not only is the Y good for an area — and I think Elizabeth City and this area was ready for it — but to me, it was a natural match between the college and a service that is so valuable to the community,” Bunch says. “We’ve never had the money in the community college system to build those kinds of physical education facilities. And yet our students will have the benefit of them.”

Albemarle Hospital has a wellness center at the Y and offers aquatic therapy. The 182-bed hospital is the region’s second-largest employer, with 1,041 workers, and it serves seven counties. Since 1995, its medical staff has almost doubled. Last year, it was named one of the nation’s “Most Wired” of small and rural hospitals in a study released by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association.

Only 25 facilities nationwide were recognized in the small and rural hospital category, says Ed Ricks, the hospital’s director of information services. While its “Most Wired” status has more to do with doctors’ ability to access clinical information from their offices, the hospital is wired in patient services, too. A mobile Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner can detect changes in cellular function, which enables physicians to make an earlier diagnosis or determine if current treatment is working. The hospital’s new oncology center has a 3-D imaging system that helps physicians pinpoint where radiation needs to go. “Until (the oncology center) was here, people had to drive a good distance for oncology services,” says Chip Romanovich, manager of communications.

The hospital has expanded its maternity services, remodeled its pediatrics section, added a step-down unit and created a customized program for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease. It also built a central energy plant that uses natural gas as a cost-saving energy source. “We offer most of the same things that a larger hospital does, but what sets us apart is our level of care — not in terms of clinical, although I would put us right up there with anybody else — but it’s the personal level of care,” Romanovich says. “It’s a smaller area, people are friendly and patients actually feel like you care for them here.”

The hospital was named District Level Business Partner of the Year in 2003 by the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public School System for its work with River Road Middle School and Sheep-Harney Elementary School. In addition to the hospital’s financial support, employees have powerwashed school buildings, planted shrubs, donated money for textbooks, mentored students and given tours of the hospital. It was recognized as the School Level Business Partner of the Year at both schools in 2003 and 2004.


Giving the Personal Touch

The hospital, colleges and businesses all take pride in the personal attention they give their clients. It’s a selling point for all. “[People] like having connections, and while a lot of the world depends on electronic connections, this is still a place where you get the personal touch,” Twiddy says.

Biggs agrees. “For me, it’s a great situation,” he says. “I’m 15 minutes from my home to work. I’m 15 minutes to the golf club. I go to Raleigh a fair amount and get on (Interstate) 40 and stuck in that six-lane traffic, so I can appreciate having a short drive, a short commute to other certain things.”

The small-town dependability hasn’t changed nearly as much as the area itself has. Before Biggs bought into his dealership in 1982, he had lived in Elizabeth City a decade earlier. Like so many others, he decided to go back because of the people.

The Harbor of Hospitality has that effect. It welcomes newcomers and return visitors alike in a way that makes a lasting impression. It also welcomes the currents of change it is seeing. And it welcomes you to come see for yourself. Who knows? You might end up staying for good, too.



'Rose Buddies' Garner Boatload of Recognition

Visitors from all over the world can attest to the hospitality of Elizabeth City’s harbor thanks largely in part to one man: lifelong resident Fred Fearing. Twenty-one years ago, Fearing and a friend began welcoming visitors who arrived by boat with wine, cheese and roses, birthing a tradition called the “Rose Buddies” that has garnered him national acclaim and a boatload of recognition from North Carolinians such as Gov. Mike Easley, former governor Jim Hunt, Bill Friday and Andy Griffith.

To understand the Rose Buddies’ roots, you have to understand Fearing’s love for his late wife, Florence. They met at Louisburg College in 1933 and married three years later. She died in 1982, and Fearing has put fresh flowers on her grave every Sunday since. “I don’t think I’ve missed 10 Sundays since 1982, and this is 0-Four,” he says. “My life was started in 1933 when I met Florence. I’m still in love with her.”

He is, indeed, as evidenced by her memory, which still thrives in his home today. Their bedroom remains as it was in 1982, with the exception of the many photos of celebrities posing with Fearing that now hang on the walls.

The idea to take flowers and food to visitors came to Fearing as he was leaving the cemetery one Sunday in 1983. It was shortly after 14 new slips had been installed at Mariner’s Wharf on the Pasquotank River. “Right after they were opened, one Sunday I came out of the cemetery, and being careful, looking both ways not to get run over, I saw seven masts over there,” he says. “I walked over there, and those people had come from up north going south.

“I came on back home, got ready and went to church, and after church I said to a friend of mine who’d lost his wife, ‘We’ve got seven boats down there with people. I’ve got a gallon of wine. Let’s go down there and have a party and thank them for coming. That’s how it got started.”

In those early days, Fearing’s friend, who has since died, had 54 rose bushes in his back yard. Some of his bushes were transplanted to the wharf. Fearing hands every woman who arrives a pair of scissors and lets her choose the flower she wants. “The requirement is that you choose a rose that you think is as pretty as you are,” he says in his deep and deliberate Southern drawl.

In the winter, when he does not have roses, he gives visitors cotton bolls. “I give them a cotton boll and make them cotton pickin’ Carolinians,” he says. “There are so many boaters from New England states and Canada, and they don’t know where cotton comes from.”

The tradition has blossomed into a full-time hobby for Fearing. A 90-year old retired mail carrier, Fearing serves his guests wine, cheese, beer, Cheez Doodles, Pepsi and Wise potato chips every day at 5 p.m. The chips, Pepsi and beer are donated; to pay for the wine and cheese, he passes a hat once in a while among the boaters. Volunteers — two couples who were once visitors themselves and moved to Elizabeth City — now help Fearing welcome others. “They came and tasted our wine and warm handshakes and roses for the ladies and said, ‘Gee, this is the place to live’,” Fearing says.

For his service, Fearing received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest honor presented to an individual for dedication and service to an organization. “Fred epitomizes Southern hospitality and Southern charm,” says Easley. “He has a winning personality that brings out the good in everyone he meets and greets. When you stop and talk to Fred Fearing, for just a brief moment in time, nothing else is going on in the world but his interest in you and your life story.”

Elizabeth City has built an international reputation for being the “Harbor of Hospitality” not only through the Rose Buddies, but also by offering 48-hour complimentary docking. “It’s not customary, and it’s not expected, but it’s greatly appreciated,” says Rhonda Twiddy, president of the chamber.

About 2,000 ships visit the harbor annually, Twiddy says. Visitors have sailed into Elizabeth City from Canada, England, Africa and Australia. Walter Cronkite has been to Fearing’s home, as has NBC weatherman Willard Scott, who gave Fearing a golf cart in 1985 while interviewing him for “Today.” After years of use, that golf cart is going to be placed in the new Museum of the Albemarle, set to open in 2005, with a wax figure of Fearing sitting in it. Fearing now uses another golf cart.

Fearing was born and raised in what’s said to be the oldest home in Elizabeth City’s historic district. The house had a three-car garage that he and Florence converted into their home, where he still lives.

Ironically, the man who welcomes world travelers doesn’t venture beyond a couple of miles from his home anymore. “At 90 years old, I don’t travel much farther than the river and back,” Fearing says.

He may not see much of the world these days, but the river brings the world to him. And he’s always waiting, with roses. — Kim C. Brafford



Putting Education First Helps Camden County Blaze New Trail

Not including Camden County in a story about Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County would be akin to asking a hand to function fully without one or two of its fingers. So closely intertwined are the former with the latter two that they all share the same chamber — the appropriately named Elizabeth City Area Chamber of Commerce. “We are very much partners in every way possible,” says Rhonda Twiddy, the chamber director. “It is a very close-knit relationship.”

Camden has about 7,500 residents, “which may not seem like much until you consider that just a few years ago, there were only about 3,000 people here,” says Randell Woodruff, the new county manager. “That’s a significant change.”

Indeed, the latest U.S. Census figures cite Camden — a county with no municipalities — as one of the top 100 growing counties in the country. (Four other N.C. counties also made the list: Chatham, Currituck, Johnston and Union.)

Yet while growing pains are inevitable, Woodruff says he’s been impressed with the community spirit he’s witnessed since arriving last Dec. 1 from Lee County, where he served as the head of youth and family services.

“Most everyone gets along and shares a common goal of effectively growing our county,” says Woodruff, who was raised less than an hour away in an area of Virginia known as Southside. “There’s a lot of cooperation between the board of commissioners and the board of education, for example. That’s not something you find in a lot of places, even places similar to us in size.”

Woodruff acknowledges the Camden County Schools — Twiddy calls it “a very high quality system with accolades an arm length’s long” — is helping attract newcomers in droves to this little area just east of the Pasquotank River. “I haven’t been here very long, but my understanding is that many of the people who move here are doing so because they want their kids to go to Camden County schools,” he says.

“Camden County has done some fantastic work with grant money for its schools,” says Twiddy, who stands in line to heap praise on Dr. John Dunn, the system’s superintendent. “He was a retired superintendent once, and now he has gone back as interim superintendent for a year. He has a common sense, practical kind of approach to building support for education that is phenomenal. He really is a world-class kind of person— he does it in a quiet way but has made a tremendous impact on the Camden County schools.”




What to See and Do in Elizabeth City
Elizabeth City’s rich history and the waterfront that connects Pasquotank and Camden counties make it an interesting place to spend a day — or two or three. Here are some of the more popular sites and activities. For activities that do not have a contact number, call the Elizabeth City Area Chamber of Commerce at 252-335-4365 or visit www.elizabethcitychamber.org for more information.

Bonny Blue overnight cruises are so popular the boat owner sold out trips last year and had a waiting list of 500. The passenger yacht Bonny Blue leaves Chesapeake, Va., every Saturday at 9 a.m. and sails down the Dismal Swamp Canal and Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City. Breakfast and lunch are included. The boat arrives in Elizabeth City at 4 p.m., where visitors are greeted by Rose Buddies. After a night of leisure, the ship sails back Sunday morning. Cost is $285/person, double occupancy. For more information, call 866-429-8747.

Elizabeth City Historic District Walking Tours cover six National Register Historic Districts. Each district takes about a half-day to walk.

Aviation Trail traces the Wright brothers’ stops around Elizabeth City, marking where they visited and bought materials. Wilbur Wright traveled to Elizabeth City in 1900 looking for passage on to Kitty Hawk. The brothers returned to Elizabeth City on many occasions to buy supplies.

The U.S. Coast Guard complex is the largest in the nation. Public tours are given every Wednesday at 10 a.m. To learn more, call 252-335-6192.

Museum of the Albemarle offers guided tours, hands-on history presentations, lectures and exhibits that tell the story of the people in the Albemarle region. Admission is free. For more information, call 252-335-1453.

Pasquotank Arts Council Gallery. Call 252-338-6455 for information.

Dismal Swamp Canal is the nation’s oldest canal still in operation. Virginia chartered it in 1790, followed by North Carolina three years later. The amber-colored water is preserved by acids from juniper, gum and cypress trees. Therefore, bacteria cannot grow in it. People used to think that the water had magical qualities and if they drank it regularly, it prevented illness. The Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center is the only one in the country accessible both by land and water. For details, call 252-771-8333.

Carolina Theatre & Grille was previously an old theater that has been converted into a dinner theater with first-run movies. To learn more, call 252-337-7600.

Elizabeth City State University Planetarium. Call 252-335-3759 for reservations.

Fun Junktion is an educational and recreational park offering picnicking, camping, swimming, boat rentals, water skiing and more. Call 252-337-6600 for information.

Episcopal Cemetery. The church was built in 1856. To learn more, call 252-335-0346.

TCOM Manufacturing. This is where blimps are stored. For tour information, call 252-330-5555. -- Kim C. Brafford


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