Robbinsville – REVVED UP is a non-profit dedicated to Robbinsville economic development, but is experiencing cash flow and volunteer shortage problems of its own.
REVVED UP is an acronym for “Robbinsville Envisioning Vital Vibrant Economic Development and Urban Prosperity.” It has several projects it has completed, including the Ronnie Milsap mural on South Main Street, wayfinding signs, an annual Christmas decoration contest, as well as planters and other streetscape beautification projects.
It was also a passive participant in the ballot measure that resulted in legal beer and wine sales in Robbinsville for the first time since 1948.
Its only steady funding source is a $2,500 annual contribution from the Town of Robbinsville, and now it finds itself with a shortage of volunteers, an increasingly burned out board of directors, and looming end-of-terms for two high-profile members, Graham County Schools Superintendent Angie Knight and Robbinsville Alderman Brian “Taco” Johnson.
The REVVED UP board already has vacancies and has trouble reaching a quorum in order to transact business.
REVVED UP Chairman John Colwell has proposed a chamber-of-commerce-like initiative in which local businesses can pay $250 per year (tax deductible) to participate in a new group he calls ARUBA – an acronym within an acronym that stands for “Alliance of REVVED UP Business Affiliates.”
Colwell said he has received pledges from six businesses willing to participate, three maybes, and a list of 25 others he plans to approach.
During a meeting on April 21, he asked board members to commit to finding 10 to 15 other businesses to join the new group.
Membership in ARUBA includes a monthly networking session and lunch with other ARUBA members, along with “a program designed to improve and promote your business.”
Crunching the numbers, Colwell hopes ARUBA will bring in $3,500 for REVVED UP operations. He is also hoping for $5,000 in annual revenue from a music festival that is still in its concept stages. All totaled, he is hoping for about $11,000 a year from the ARUBA group and concert, as well as the contribution from the town.
Colwell is hoping the new revenue will help pay for a part-time executive director or administrator and office space, which would in turn could restore REVVED UP’s momentum.
A summertime concert has no specific details and the next scheduled event – a two-day visit by CPN Institute – occurs later this year and focuses on construction industry professionals holding workshops in Graham County to look for economic development opportunities.
Part of REVVED UP’s problem is that economic development in Graham County is already fractured between several entities, each with its own board, revenue streams and specific missions.
Graham County, where tourism is the major industry, has four tourism development authorities, including one for Graham County as a whole (although one, in the Town of Lake Santeetlah, has been defunded). The county has a full-time economic development position, although the director, Sophia Paulos, has not been active in that role for some time.
Graham County economic development has its own website, grahamcountyedc.org, but links for commercial property for lease or sale, as well as development property for sale, come back “listing not found,” and a page dedicated to partners comes up blank.
There is also GREAT, the Graham Revitalization Economic Action Team, which describes itself as an inclusive community leadership team in Graham County.
REVVED UP is an offshoot from GREAT but sometimes finds its efforts to be redundant and has been operating in GREAT’s shadow.
GREAT has been less active during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its list of projects in 2018-19 include the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Project, General Operating Support Grant, Robbinsville High School Sweetwater Creek Restoration and Education Project, Nourishing Food Grant, the Robbinsville way finding sign project, a Graham County Strategic Tourism Plan, and the Graham County Broadband Infrastructure Project.
GREAT is also partnering with a Graham County Schools’ project to convert the old downtown Veterans of Foreign Wars building into a student-operated coffee house and imprinting shop. Jessica Blevins perhaps summed it up best at the April 21 REVVED UP meeting. Blevins was there to promote Spring Vendor’s Market, an event she is organizing for May 21. She said she had only heard about REVVED UP the day before and knew very little about the organization. That despite one of Robbinsville’s iconic murals, the Ronnie Milsap mural, being a REVVED UP project.