Discovery Place eyeing Belmont for children’s museum

Even though the concept is old news ’round here, when the Gazette picks it up, it must be important.

We think this is a great reuse of the inactive mills, it helps from a destination place viewpoint, and it keeps the Discovery Place program in the forefront of children’s programming.

Our wholehearted endorsement of this program is just a few small voices applauding the formation and planning process.

With homes in the former Chronicle Mill village converted to private ownership, and the lack of significant parking, what are the plans to move cars, and the many school busses and day care busses through the neighborhood?

This will certainly be a challenge to Mayor Richard Boyce’s vision of “Neighborhood Preservation’ as expressed in the recently passed Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

We would assume the RL Stowe Fiber Lab will be eliminated for the parking needs, but that begs the question about the Belmont Parks and Rec department onetime eye on the land next to the new police station. Members of council had shared an interest several years ago in this land for a Recreation Center when the police station was under construction. Now that the Parks Bond has passed, maybe they have backed off on that idea?

The program of regionalizing the Discovery Place for children in the lower elementary grades is a workable concept. Already in the design phase, a similar regional Discovery Place Kids will be located in Huntersville. As many as five regional prgrams could be established. Kinda wonder what would happen to the Schiele Museum over in Gastonia. The city’s museum is struggling financially and the current city manager has put pressure on all the department heads to lower city-funded operating losses.

Could Discovery Place Kids be the Wal-mart of children’s museum programming?

Good Luck with this project, we hope it works out for the best for everyone.

 

Rough Draft Band Rocks Downtown Belmont

The Rough Draft band from Charlotte rocked downtown Belmont last night during the second installment of the 2008 Friday Night Live! series.

Disco hits of the late 70’s and early 80’s were mixed in with pop tune covers throughout both sets. Of course the obligatory, “Electric Slide” was played for the female (and the few male) dancers. Seems liked every band that comes to Belmont has to play “Electric Slide”. Ok, just kinda confirms for us the level of “sophistication” the bands have when they pander to crowds.

The interesting part of the Friday Night Live! is becoming the intermission between sets. The Downtown Belmont Merchants Association takes the opportunity to thank the sponsors of the event, make announcements, and let the evening’s sponsor do their song and dance.

Last night the sponsor was Neil Brock and Associates (Nationwide Insurance). Neil was able to get Nationwide to bring in their showcar from the newly sponsored under-card of NASCAR (formerly the Busch Series), now called the Nationwide Series. They also had a racing simulator on hand that was free. Neil did a good job, even handing out a lot of “freebies”.

Belmont is certainly getting spoiled by all the largess that is being lavished on the crowds at Friday Night Live! Our little crowd certainly enjoyed ourselves last night. The “expanded” beer garden now extends from the tracks to the Day Spa and occasionally pushes onto the state road commonly known as Main Street (gasp).

The dude from the hardwood flooring store with the annoyingly high pitched voice needs to find someone else to lead the announcements. While his statements are needed - he just is not the person needing to make them. Certainly someone with a better microphone voice can be found to rally the crowd at intermission.

One important point that was stressed at the last event and again last night was that the downtown businesses were the overall sponsors of this entertainment - not the Chamber of Commerce. Although, there was a lot of cooperative work being done between the two groups. That collaboration is key to the success of this event.

We really enjoyed the fact that the evening’s lead sponsor gets to do a bit of promotion. Will a bridal show be on tap in the future? Or, maybe a beer-chugging contest sponsored by one of the downtown “pubs”? just random thoughts to ponder…

 One highlight of the dancing action was a certain Jaquie Allen of Charlotte, who was able to dance (disco-style actually), and hula-hoop at the same time. She provided quite a bit of entertainment for the crowd and did some instructional work with the kids at the same time. We love it Belmont!

The food vendors are constantly improving. The po-po are lightening up a bit, and the city’s street maintenance crews seem to be enjoying themselves so much more. Maybe that overtime agreement helped out a lot…

The downtown merchants hawked the Friday Night Live! t-shirts for $10, and explained that the funds raised would be going to a scholarship program for South Point students. They brought up some of the applicant/volunteers of the scholarship program during the intermission. Pretty neat idea there folks.

Overall, another enjoyable night in the lively downtown area. We think it would be cool if the merchants association could give out some economic impact numbers by week or by season. It helps when you are attempting to draw interest to the community at several levels.

The next Friday Night Live! is June 13 with Jimmy Quick & the Coastline band.

Don’t forget the Parks and Recreation concerts in the park, next Saturday night with the Center City Groove Band.

Blowing (in) with the Wind: Myrick legislative works

US Representative, Sue Myrick, has introduced legislation to open drilling activities off the North Carolina Outer Banks region. “Some may say my legislation is controversial. So be it.”

Duh.

Representative Myrick points to a recent Gallup poll that says 57% of Americans support drilling for offshore oil. Does she represent the 9th district of North Carolina or the oil barons of Texas?

Oil rigs visible from the shoreline of Hatteras, more - barely secured facilities off the US coastline, and destruction of active fishing grounds - both sport and commercial. Just a few of the results of trying to save her seat in Congress.

Pandering to the whims of an administration bent on “doing nothing”? Yet, attempting to show “independence of thought” by doing “what is right” to loosen our dependence on foreign energy supplies?

Ms. Myrick continues to Blow with the Wind - too bad she couldn’t see past her next round of election campaigns.