Our process to resolve problems, meet challenges and create opportunities 
VISIONING
Statesville's vision is to become one community out of many cultures and a community
providing opportunity and hope for all. As Mayor Costi Kutteh stated, "We are only as strong as our willingness to work
together." Statesville's can-do and get-involved attitude comes from an active citizenry
that readily seeks and accepts challenges. Statesville has channeled this citizen activism into positive efforts, which sometimes
emerge from a citizenry eager to determine its own future. Statesville has also largely escaped the apathy that leads to non-involvement.
Statesville has truly been blessed but none of this happened without effort, leadership and cooperation. In
2001, the City participated in a Visioning process that pointed out a highway corridor, built in the 1970s to encourage industrial
development, had divided the City into a "southside" and the "other side". The
survey and interviews revealed the southside had been neglected, resulting in a high rate of dilapidated structures, crime,
absentee property owners, overgrown lots, unoccupied businesses and houses. Several efforts took place over several years
to have clean-up days, increase police presence and demolish structures considered to be nuisances. Tackling
this problem was part of the City's 2001 Vision Statement. Fast forward to 2007,
when city leaders revisited the Vision Statement. This time, however, efforts were successfully made to conduct a Visioning
process involving the entire community. A new Vision Statement was developed from the work of 12 strategic partners and the
input of citizens through community forums in hopes that as Statesville prepares to grow, this Shared Vision will help it
grow together. During the community visioning process, once again attention was called to the problems
in the "southside". This time, however, because of the community's desire to make
it a shared vision, the efforts are more inclusive. Many positive things have happened in the southside: - The
Weed & Seed program is helping rid neighborhoods of crime and apathy;
- A
newly constructed Boys & Girls Club opens in April 2009;
- A new homeless
shelter has been built with an emphasis on transitional housing;
- A problem motel was demolished and replaced
with a skills training center;
- Renovation of a vacant motorcycle dealership into a 6,000-square-foot community health
clinic with additional space for the first bank in the area in 15 years, a successful restaurant and other retail establishments;
- Functional
police substation; and
- 86 moderately priced homes for first-time homeowners.
However, the challenge
of the new vision is to not just restore the neighborhoods and commercial areas, but also restore the pride and respect in
South Statesville among all citizens and remove invisible barriers established by the corridor. The challenge is bringing
citizens from all parts of town together to solve problems and celebrate life together. A recent
study to develop the downtown corridor intentionally extended the area to include the "southside" to create one
thoroughfare that highlights the diversity of the community but is seamless in uniformity of amenities.
MANY SUCCESSES
Statesville was recognized as a 1997 All-America City for bringing people together,
meeting challenges, solving problems and creating opportunity. Despite the challenges of high unemployment, deteriorating
neighborhoods in South Statesville and a growing cultural diversity highlighted by rapid population growth of the Hispanic
community, Statesville is meeting today's challenges and building for tomorrow. One key to
Statesville's success is perpetual planning through the Visioning process. This brings together citizens and people from
business, non-profits, health care, education and media together to discuss problems, solutions, opportunities and challenges.
Over the years this has yielded many remarkable achievements, including these real examples of how Statesville has demonstrated
its strengths and faced its challenges: - Save Our Depot campaign rallied
citizens who raised $315,000 to relocate the historic depot with no public funds;
- A County, City, citizens and businesses
partnership built a new library downtown using an innovative land swap. Then the Iredell Friends
of the Library raised $80,000 in private money to buy books;
- Private investment rebuilt much of downtown, including
the historic Montgomery Building and American Renaissance Charter schools, while public
money built the Statesville Civic Center and other public buildings. In total, 170
buildings were renovated, 727 jobs created and 61 businesses expanded;
- A school, City, parents and citizens partnership
kept Statesville High School downtown. In an innovative effort, the City provided $1.6
million to renovate the school's historic auditorium and create a performing arts theater. This saved taxpayers millions
of dollars;
- Dove House, a children's advocacy center and recipient of the
Governor's Crime Commission Award of Excellence, is building a $1.5 million facility
entirely from private funds. Last year it served 288 cases with a successful prosecution rate of 79%;
- Teen Health, a collaboration of many agencies and organizations, helped reduce teen pregnancy 42% which saves
taxpayers over $1 million annually;
- The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration
brings together over 3,000 citizens in a community-wide series of events promoting unity of races, religions and languages;
- Our
school system went from below average to being one of North Carolina's top-ten systems with rising scores in math and
science for white and black students. Community support was evident in overwhelming passage of two school bonds for new facilities;
- Mitchell Community College became America's first and only community college accepted
in a NASA competition to design rockets;
- Statesville branch of the NAACP has
been recognized as the best in the State three times in the past decade;
- The Big Read
is a community-wide program to promote reading and create dialogue. This year's book was To
Kill a Mockingbird. Public forums brought different races and ages together to discuss race relations. This was thoroughly
covered by a positive media;
- Political forums are conducted through a partnership of the local newspaper, radio station,
educators association and chamber of commerce; and
- Three other successes—Mi
Familia Institute, Fifth Street Ministires and Boys
& Girls Club—are featured projects in the All-America City nomination. Two included simultaneous multi-million
dollar capital campaigns for facilities.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Even with its many successes, Statesville faces challenges and two are outlined in the All-America City nomination.
Our Visioning process helps meet these challenges. The City hosts annual sessions and invites leaders from schools, government,
business and non-profits to come together to discuss community needs. The City solicits citizen involvement through the media,
direct mailings, and phone calls. The result is several hundred people coming together for a day of dialogue. It seeks input
from everyone possible; forms partnerships with everyone possible and seeks solutions before problems become a crisis. This
provides a venue for citizen input and creates a culture of inclusion and unity. The outcome is the community viewing challenges
as problems to be solved instead of battles to be fought. Our Visioning prcess gives us the ability and wisdom to address
any issue. This has served us well and led to many of the successes highlighted above. The strategy continues as we confront
the challenges of today and the highlighted projects detail how this strategy is leading to continued success in addressing
our problems. —Excerpts
from Statesville's 2009 All-America City application
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