By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Participants in an expanded meeting of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee on March 13 gained key insights about decisions being made by Watauga County affecting the town, as presented by Commissioner Todd Castle, and heard updates on critical infrastructure and development issues from Town Manager Shane Fox.
Hosted by new Chamber CEO Robin Miller at Town Hall, the meeting kicked off with brief introductions of everyone in attendance. Once completed, Watauga County Commissioner Todd Castle, elected to represent District 5 that includes Blowing Rock, introduced himself and described progress on three significant issues affecting the Town of Blowing Rock.
- Ambulance Service: Castle stated the County is actively looking to purchase land for an ambulance base, to be located along the U.S. 321 corridor between Tweetsie Railroad and the Blue Ridge Parkway. He acknowledged that current response times for ambulance service to Blowing Rock is 15-20 minutes and said that an ambulance based at the proposed new site would reduce that to 5-6 minutes, plus better serve areas like Ski Mountain, Blue Ridge Mountain Club, and western communities along U.S. 221. “It is going to happen sooner than later,” he said of the service first requested by Blowing Rock residents in 1974 and repeatedly requested since, to no avail. Given the population size and demographics of the Blowing Rock area, expansion of ambulance service is long overdue.
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The special meeting of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee on March 13 was well attended by area business owners and some residents. Photographic image by David Rogers for Blowing Rock News Communications: The County has adopted the new VIPER communications technology and has erected multiple towers throughout the county, Castle said. He noted that he and other county commissioners and staff are working with Blowing Rock town management to identify one or more locations for a VIPER tower to enhance and modernize emergency services communications, locally.
- School Resource Officer: Several years ago, the Town of Blowing Rock began paying for a School Resource Officer (SRO) to be full-time at Blowing Rock School when Watauga County balked at providing such officers. Since then, the County has hired SROs for the seven other elementary and middle schools in the County, as well as at Watauga High School, but left Blowing Rock to pay for its own SRO. Castle stated that going forward the County will pay for the Blowing Rock SRO, relieving the Town of Blowing Rock taxpayers of that financial burden.
Blowing Rock Town Manager Shane Fox outlined key infrastructure improvements that are important to the town’s economic development, including water, sewer, street paving and, specifically, the renovations about to start in Memorial Park. He also offered reports on various developments, from a new Hampton Inn to be considered in the near future by the Planning Board and Town Council, to recently improved projects including Shoppes at Watership Down, Arbor Village and the Green Park Inn. He also briefly discussed the reasons for the Board of Commissioners’ rejection of the proposed redevelopment of Shoppes on the Parkway.
At the outset of the meeting, Miller stated that it would only last one hour and, true to her word, the meeting was adjourned at exactly 10 a.m. (one hour after the scheduled 9 p.m. start time).
