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City leaders tout award's benefits
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Published: June 24, 2009
The planning was well-thought-out and coordinated by city and civic leaders; the projects used in it were carefully selected; the application essay artfully written; and the final presentation was precisely scripted, choreographed and rehearsed.
All of that culminated, last Friday, in Statesville securing its second All-America City award in the last 12 years.
And while all those who participated in the successful effort are still basking in the glory of it, the questions of "what does it mean?" and "what's next?" are begging to be asked.
The All-America City award has been given out by the National Civic League since 1949. And the award has come to mean different things to the more than 500 different winners over that time.
"Some places get really creative with it," said Mike McGrath, senior editor of the National Civic League Press and an organization spokesperson.
"Some cities put the logo on their water towers," he said. "Some make it part of their city marks and put it on city limit signs and that sort of thing."
Seven of the 10 winners from 2008 have the award's official logo prominently displayed on the opening page of their cities' official Web sites.
And past winners often mention it in the course of descriptions of their cities.
But Statesville leaders are in no rush to put their new award to work.
"There will be promotions, we're just not sure yet what what all that will look like." said Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David Bradley. "But whatever we do, we are going to wear this moniker proudly."
Statesville Information Officer Nancy Davis said a meeting — that includes Bradley, Mayor Costi Kutteh and others who had leading roles in the All-America City project — is in the works for later this week.
"Hopefully what we'll be talking about, in addition to strengthening and building on the relationships we forged during all of this and how to market our winning it, is planning a party to celebrate it," Davis said. "I love to plan a party."
Like Bradley, Davis said nothing is etched in stone regarding how to proceed from here with the award.
"We'll just have to wait and see what it will be," she said.
Mike Smith, executive director of the Greater Statesville Development Corporation, said the award can be used as a tool to promote the city to business leaders who are looking for places to start, expand or relocate their operations.
"It will now certainly be a piece of our story," said Smith.
He said the All-America City designation adds to several other honors the city and Iredell County have received in the past few months, including Statesville-Mooresville's spot atop a list of the nation's micropolitan areas in a survey conducted earlier this year.
"I really can't think of another community our size anywhere that has done anything like this, in this kind of time frame," Smith said. "But one thing this award shows is that there is very strong leadership in our city. And when you're dealing with businesses, that's a good selling point."
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, whose 5th District includes Statesville, said the All-America City Award is an reflection of Statesville's community spirit.
"This is a much-deserved recognition for Statesville," Foxx said in an e-mail to the R&L. "I've always been impressed with this community's ability to band together and create solutions to difficult problems.
"So it's no surprise to see Statesville win this prestigious award again. Congratulations to all the great citizens of Statesville who made this remarkable repeat achievement possible."
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