By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer
It’s no coincidence Stevie Cox sees planning as an important part of a town manager’s job.
Cox, 41, is the new town manager for Chadbourn. He left the planner’s position with Columbus County to take the Chadbourn post.
“I’m going to take a few weeks to get my feet wet and look around,” he said Thursday. “I don’t plan on making any big changes until I get a feel for things in Chadbourn.”
Cox said Chadbourn is a “good setting for short and long term goals.”
“I want to sit down in the near future with the board and the staff to outline some goals and mark some priorities,” he said.
A 1984 graduate of Hobbton High school in Sampson County, Cox attended Wake Forest University and obtained his graduate degree from East St. Louis (Illinois) University. He worked as a planner in East St. Louis, administering federal enterprise budgets for the city. Enterprise funds help underprivileged communities improve economic growth.
While there, Cox said, he managed budgets ranging from $3.4 to $4.2 million annually.
Cox spent three years in Monroe as a neighborhood and community development planner before moving to Elizabeth City, where he worked for two years, including a stint as interim planning director for the city. He came to Columbus in August 2005.
Cox said he plans to update Chadbourn’s zoning ordinance to reflect both the community and changes in commercial and residential trends. He also looks forward to completing a revamp of the town’s capital improvement plan (CIP) with an eye toward encouraging new residential development in the town.
“There is a major lack of market-range apartments in Columbus County,” he said. “I’d love to see a nice residential development here that would be attractive to the staff of the new prison, as well as other people who need a good rental home.”
Cox said he also hopes to continue the revitalization efforts in the downtown area.
“I have no desire to turn this into another Cary,” he said. “Chadbourn has its own charm, and I wouldn’t want to change that.”