Lauren Monica | Anson Record
WADESBORO — Newly appointed Town Manager Wiley Ross Jr. held a well attended meet and greet town hall last Thursday to discuss ongoing issues in the Wadesboro community.
“I have often said Wadesboro is a small town with big city problems,” stated Ross in response to the crowd’s voiced concerns, which included high crime rates, a water bill increase of 11 percent, housing, lax building code enforcement and the community’s despair over their employment outlook.
Addressing housing and building renovations, Ross shared that the town of Wadesboro is working on a grant funded through Centralina that will provide 15 to 20 seniors, individuals over the age of 62 meeting grant requirements, with money to renovate their home’s roofing, plumbing, mechanical, or structural needs.
“We are taking an aggressive approach to code enforcement. There are over twenty homes here in code violation,” Ross said.
Ross agreed with citizens that a lack of jobs and a recreation center for youth is largely responsible for the rising crime rates and low academic scores of Anson County school students. Answering the charge that many in the community believe Wal-mart closed its doors due to theft, Ross disagreed.
“Wal-mart closed because of low sales, it was not because of theft, though there was a small amount of theft that did occur,” Ross said.
Many residents expressed a shared feeling that, “We need a place for our citizens to shop at and restaurants to eat at here in Wadesboro… We should not have to drive to Rockingham or Monroe to spend our money… our money should stay in our community, with our small businesses.”
In preparation of the Wadesboro bypass, Rockingham has already courted a Chick-Fil-A and other revenue generating businesses to their area. Additionally, Rockingham currently has hotels ranging from the budget friendly to the more upscale Fairfield Inn by Marriott. In recent years, Cheraw, too, has enticed SpringHill Suites by Marriott to their downtown.
“We do need restaurants, shops, and places that encourage beach travelers to stay,” agreed Ross.
Others mentioned, “Things were better in the county when we had jobs… at one time there were 13 textile mills open… now we have crime because we have no jobs.”
Studio 256 Owner Heather Edwards shared her disappointment over the town’s lack of support for local businesses and events, citing low turnout at community events like the NAACP sponsored Juneteenth celebration, and most recently, Spring Jam. Many attendees agreed with Edwards, some also voicing concern over a perceived lack of communication between citizens and town officials regarding events, celebrations or bill increases.
Regarding communication, some in the crowd stated their dismay at finding the lights of Wadesboro Park turned off before it gets dark outside, expressing anxiety that it may lead to an increase in crime at the park. Citizens stated that they “do not feel safe walking in the dark.”
Believing no one was using the park at night, town officials made the cost-cutting decision to cut the lights at dusk.
“We will look at that, you should be able to use your park safely when it is open,” Ross said.
Tied to Wadesboro’s lack of a recreation center, YMCA or Boys and Girls Club in the area, Anson County is a tier one county that lacks the funding to keep a recreation center functioning long term.
“There are people in power that do not want to be above a tier one county… it makes it easier to get grant money that ends up going to them and not the community. The $11 million we got from the state was not asked for, it was already in the budget,” Sheriff Scott Howell said.
Pointing out that State Representative Brody brought a much larger check to Union County, Sheriff Howell said, “Union County has a big tax base because they pull the strings.”
In addition to Anson, Brody also represents Union County, which as of 2022 has a population of 249,070 compared to Anson’s 22,202 that same year.
The sheriff’s comments stirred the crowd to wonder why Anson County does not have the same industry, restaurants, shops, over crowded school systems and well driven roads as Union County.
Many attendees took umbrage of $1.5 million used to construct a splash pad, which is only useful to residents three months out of the year, with one crowd member commenting, “We do still need to finish that project.”
Another citizen mentioned that they were told by Rep. Brody if Anson County were to raise $1.5 million for a recreation center the state will fund the remainder of the project.
For his part, Ross agreed with many residents, sharing, “We cannot just wave a magic wand and have a rec center. It is something we are going to have to work on together as a community. Not having a YMCA or rec center is unacceptable.”
Speaking more broadly, Ross said, “We will have to work together as a community to address these issues.”
He added, “We are still operating like we are in 1996. We need to get up to speed. I hear a lot that ‘this is the way we have always done it’ and we need to change our mindset and do things better and more efficiently.”
