Aerospace industry comes to town in a big way

Great News for Kinston
& Lenoir County!!

Banner emblazoned with "We've Got Spirit" were installed along Queen Street Thursday on the heels of announcements that Spirit AeroSystems will be spending $570.5 million on new facilities at the Global TransPark, with plans to employ 1,000 people over next few years. City of Kinston Public Service employee Kevin Thomas is shown happily securing the banner on a power line pole at the intersection of North and Queen Street. He was joined by colleagues James Foster, Wayne Mitchell, Marty Jones and Jeremy Leland in the happy task.

To the cheers of hundreds of ecstatic citizens, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and John Lewelling, senior vice president of Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. announced Wednesday, May 14, 2008 that the world's largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components is coming to the Global TransPark with a $570.5 million investment. The company immediately becomes the State-owned facility's premier tenant. The TransPark is adjacent to Kinston's regional airport.

The announcement was made in a crowded airplane hangar at the GTP attended by local and state dignitaries and regular citizens. Mr. Lewelling told the excited group that Spirit AeroSystems will eventually employ more than 1,000 employees making an average wage of $48,000 a year...$20,000 more than the current average wage in Lenoir County. The company plans a 300,000 square feet facility at the GTP in the first installment of its plan, hoping to be ready for full operations by 2010.

As the Kinston deal was being hailed, Spirit AeroSystems announced from its Wichita, Kan. headquarters that it had inked a deal with Airbus to design and make a major composite structure for the A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) program. The GTP facility, to be called a Composites Manufacturing Center for aircraft parts and assemblies, is a result of the new Airbus contract.

By Thursday a five-man crew from Kinston's Public Services Department were hanging "We've Got Spirit" banners along Queen Street. The banners provided by the Lenoir County Committee of 100.

The Spirit announcement came just 19 days after Sanderson Farms of Mississippi, the nation's fourth largest poultry processing company of Mississippi, said it would invest $126.5 million in Lenoir County to build new processing capability, and would create 1,600 jobs in the county.

In less than a month, Kinston and Lenoir citizens were told that 2,600 new job opportunities were being added to the local workforce requirements, blockbuster economic development news for the area.

For additional information about the two companies go to: www.spiritaero.com or to www.sandersonfarms.com.

Herritage Street Merchants Take Steps to Re-organize

HERRITAGE STREET MERCHANTS will get a new advocate group if some of the street's business owners have their way.

A core group of Herritage Street merchants met informally Wednesday (May 14, 2008) and agreed to take steps to revitalize the physical attributes of the Herritage Street corridor and to re-establish an organization which can speak for the merchants.

Terry Andrews, CEO of Modular Technologies and investor with Susan Sikes and his wife Debbie in the new enterprise Adriana’s at 222 N. Herritage, spearheads the efforts.

Herritage Street has seen a resurgence in the past two years with five new businesses catering to shopping and dining customers:

• Broken Eagle Restaurant;
• Chef & the Farmer Restaurant;
• Adriana’s, a home décor and gifts store;
• Barbaros, a kitchen utensils boutique; and
• Salon Steven.

The new businesses have begun operating in a re-charged atmosphere due to several other new ventures within a four-block area:

• Plans to construct a pedestrian bridge across the Neuse River connecting the shopping strip with the thousands of visitors who annually visit the Neuseway Nature Center;
• The near completion of the CSS Neuse II, 158-foot replica of the original Civil War-era fighting ship located at Herritage and Gordon Streets;
• Opening of Riverside Bicycles and Outdoor Sports at 210 W. Gordon;
• An existing two-block strip of customer-friendly businesses and eateries such as the Blanc Chemisier, the Briary, Lovick’s Café, Parrott’s Store, Reflecting You Custom Glass & Mirror and Reynolds Seafood.
• In addition, three or four new enterprises are poised to open: (a) a new catering business at 115-121 W. North Street, and (b) J.D. Lewis Antiques, a new antiques store at 306 N. Herritage St., and (c) the building at 214-216 Herritage Street, recently purchased by Mr. Andrews, is slated to be renovated into two new stores.

The group which met informally at Pride of Kinston’s offices agreed to poll all Herritage Street merchants to get their ideas about a new organization to represent their businesses. Business owners on side streets connecting Herritage with Queen Street will be invited to participate. In addition, the group decided to:

• Get a post office address;
• Create the organization mission, purpose, etc. and suggest Herritage Landing in Historic Downtown Kinston as an official name;
• Focus at first on the two blocks of Herritage between Gordon and Blount Streets;
• To pursue re-paving the sidewalks with brick pavers;
• To investigate new lighting fixtures for the street;
• To create a Memory Lane inviting residents to purchase bricks in honor of family members, friends, etc;
• To host candidate forums for those running for the Kinston City Council and the Lenoir County Commission;
• To seek financial support from the businesses benefiting from new sidewalks and lighting as partners with the City of Kinston;

Those participating in the informal gathering were: Debbie Andrews of Adriana’s;Terry Andrews of Modular Technologies; Bobby Carraway of Broken Eagle Eatery; Tim Duggins of J.D. Lewis Antiques; Steve & Regina Parnell of Salon Steven; Barbara Rose of Barbaros; Susan Sikes of Adriana’s; Teena Williams of The Right Angle.

Erasing the Lines Teams Up
with Pride for Queen Street Project

Erasing the Lines, an interdenominational youth movement which focuses on outreach projects in the community, has teamed up with Pride of Kinston to re-paint the trash receptacles and benches along Queen Street.

The Queen Street refurbishing project will take place over a four-day period, June 23-27, 2008. "This is a very gratifying partnership," commented Pride Director Adrian King. "Erasing the Lines brings together young people from all over the city who aim to make a positive difference in their own lives and in the life of the community. We appreciate what they stand for and what they contribute."

Erasing the Lines is a project of Sonset Ministries, led by Sammy Hudson. He also heads The Refuge, a summer camp being developed in Greene County for use by Kinston youth and others in Eastern North Carolina.

REFURBISHED: The entrance to Neuseway Park at intersection of Gordon and Mitchell Streets has been completely refurbished with new landscaping and plantings, a project undertaken by the Pride of Kinston's Design Committee in cooperation with the Kinston-Lenoir County Parks & Recreation Department. The effort was made to improve the appearance of the park in time for the Festival on the Neuse and the six Sand in the Streets concerts set for this summer. Neuseway Park is the site for the festival and concerts. Standing adjacent to the entrance are two new crepe myrtle trees installed at the site on April 19, 2008 in commemoration of Arbor Day in Kinston.