Former Iredell County Manager Joel Mashburn has been on something of a retirement tour since he stepped down from his post as the county’s top non-elected officer at the end of last month.
At its Thursday night regular meeting, Mashburn was feted by the Troutman Board of Aldermen, during which time he was informed that the walking trail in the town’s planned park will be named in his honor.
Troutman Mayor Elbert Richardson said Mashburn helped bring Iredell together during the 23 years he served. Richardson said the county was divided when he arrived in the mid-1970s.
“Today we are much more unified than I thought we would ever be,” he said. “And that’s due to people like Joel.”
More recently, Richardson said, Mashburn was a key player helping Troutman secure a $500,000 North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Grant that the town will use to pay for a good portion of the first phase of a large athletics park that is in its early stages of development.
Indeed, Richardson said, that if it wasn’t for Mashburn’s role in getting Iredell County to take responsibility for the maintenance of the Troutman ESC Park (named for Engineered Sintered Components, the company that essentially donated the park’s land to the town), Troutman most likely would not have been awarded the PARTF grant.
Because of that and other reasons, Richardson said, the Board of Aldermen chose to name the park’s main path the Joel Ray Mashburn Fitness Trail.
Mashburn was also presented an artist’s rendering of the park, with the trail so-named, framed alongside a resolution in Mashburn’s honor.
Mashburn, by far the longest serving manager in Iredell’s history, was humbled by the accolades.
“I never expected all these honors,” he said in alluding to the night’s affairs as well as similar events by other Iredell municipalities and school boards over the past month or so. “All I’ve done and have tried my best to do is just to do my job. But it has been a joy and a pleasure to work with you all.”
Also at Thursday’s meeting:
--- Dennis Clary was recognized for his role as the founder and primary organizer of the Troutman Independence Day Parade for the past several years.
Clary said he was passing the duties on to others but said of his efforts, “It’s been a lot of hard word, but it’s been a joy.”
--- Erika Martin was named the Troutman’s full-time, on-staff planning director. For the past two years Martin has worked in that same capacity for the town but did so as a contract worker.
--- Jan Comer, of the town’s park committee, said a groundbreaking ceremony will be held for the Troutman ESC Park on Aug. 4 and that actual work on clearing the trees for the park’s construction will begin on Aug. 8
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