Mt. Olive seeks name for downtown
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on January 5, 2005 1:59 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Downtown has come close to getting a new name.
Mount Olive's Small Town Development Committee met Tuesday at the Southern Bank downtown and took a big step toward finding a catchy name with which to market the downtown area.
The committee has held a naming contest, and the top names so far are Olive Center Shops, Olive Junction and Olive Market Place.
When the committee chairman, Patti O'Donoghue, called the names of several choices, members of the committee started passing notes to her immediately with their votes. She wanted to wait until more members, who were not present, could choose a name, too.
Two of the names, Olive Center Shops and Olive Junction, were tied, with three votes each. Olive Market Place was close behind them. The new name will likely be announced in spring.
Meanwhile, the Small Town Committee has a new member, Bill Taylor of Wilmington. He is retired and recently bought the old Bennett Seed Warehouse. He offered to help the group talk with the railroad company about reinstalling the crosswalks on Center Street.
He said some towns plant low shrubs along the tracks to keep down the noise and the dust when the trains run through town. The railroads like it, he said.
"It eliminates people trying to cross it in those areas," he said. He said he thinks the low shrubs would be an incentive for the railroad company to allow the town to install the cross-walks. He said he would see it as an incentive if he were still working for the railroad -- "as long as you don't let the shrubs get too high and obstruct their view."
Mrs. O'Donoghue said people are crossing the tracks "every moment of every day."
Mrs. O'Donoghue told the group she is getting a carload of people together to attend N.C. Main Street's annual conference in New Bern.
The conference, which will be held Jan. 26-28 at the Riverfront Convention Center, will highlight 25 years of the N.C. Main Street program and will feature topics of interest to towns of all sizes. The keynote speaker Friday will be Mayor Joe Riley of Charleston, S.C. He is widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America, according to Main Street officials.
For information and to register, visit www.ncdca.org/mainst and click on conference brochure or conference registration; or e-mail [email protected].