A local bank has offered to lend money so NMT can meet terms of a grant and work can start on restoring the old Elise Depot, transforming it into a cultural center and museum.
That old railroad station sits beside tracks in the middle of town, where a father once built a railroad and named the village for his daughter, Elise. Elise became Hemp, and Hemp became Robbins.
Over recent years, one business after another closed its doors, hitting hard a town of working men and women that had weathered the Great Depression in relative prosperity. Textile plants started, closed, restarted, closed again.
Last week Klaussner Furniture announced it was moving almost 190 jobs out of county along with the machinery from its plant, turning the building into a virtual job-free zone.
Five years ago, that building, built with county and town support, was meant to be a job magnet. But Klaussner bought it, and took those jobs elsewhere.
“When I first heard they were leaving, I said, at least we will have the building,” said Gene Lewis Thursday night. “We can look for another company. Then I found out they are not only leaving, they are keeping the building, not making the building available.”
Lewis was dismayed to learn the building built with county and town support for the purpose of attracting jobs was now gone. Robbins would have to start over.
Lewis and Wallace Edwards are former co-presidents of NMT. They joined others at the first joint work session proposed by current NMT president Noah Phillips.
Mayor Mickey Brown and the Town Board have agreed to meet with NMT twice a month to find ways to deal with a dire economic situation in the upper end of the county.
The ripples of job losses will take other jobs with them.
“Job losses will affect our schools,” Commissioner Anna Derr said. “Parents will not want to drive to Candor or Asheboro to work. They’ll move. If we lose students, we will lose staff.”
Town Commissioner Theron Bell agreed.
“The whole north end of the county will lose when we lose,” she said.
Involving Concerned Citizens
Northern Moore Tomorrow began almost 20 years ago.
“Its stated purpose was ‘to provide services to the northern Moore area business community through the efforts of concerned citizens.’” Phillips said. “Another group, the Industrial Corporation of Robbins, was formed years before. That corporation closed, and donated a piece of land to Northern Moore Tomorrow. How they got that land, I have no clue. They agreed to deed that land to Northern Moore Tomorrow.”
Phillips investigated, found the sole surviving officer, and arranged for the transfer to be completed. The lot is tax-valued at $15,000. Phillips told the session that NMT would use money from the sale to complete the matching funds needed for the depot grant.
But it has not been sold yet.
Lewis had an idea: get public-spirited citizens to back a loan for the money.
“Fifteen years ago, we had two days where we set up downtown,” Lewis said. “We wanted 40 to 50 people to say they would contribute $1,000 apiece. We set aside two days downtown to find them.”
Brown recalled the success of that drive.
“We needed 40 people to come up with $45,000,” Brown said. “In two days, we had 60. Now, if some would cosign a loan, we could have the money now. I see that as the most immediate goal. Let’s do something we can do right away.”
Under the plan, a group of public-spirited citizens would co-sign an $11,500 loan against the NMT lot. A bank could advance the money in the form of a loan, and terms of the matching grant would be met in time for the December deadline.
NMT could immediately start work on the depot project.
Interest would be paid until the property found a buyer, or donors could contribute to NMT to retire the debt.
“People might not be able to write a check today for $1,000,” Phillips said. “They might be able to contribute $50 a month.”
Fidelity Bank’s Neil Wolfe indicated such a guarantee could be worked out with the Robbins branch of his bank. He would check on the idea Friday. NMT and the Robbins board set an immediate goal to find people to back the needed depot money by the time of the next joint session, set for 5:30 p.m., Nov. 10.
“We need to get passionate,” Lewis said. “It took so long to get this depot off the blocks. We need 55 good people to invest $200 in the future of northern Moore. We need to tell them, ‘This is an investment in your own home, your own community.’ It is an investment in the future.”
They set what looked to be a tough goal: two weeks to find the depot money. It took less than a day.
Wolfe called Phil Woodard, senior vice-president of Fidelity Bank. Woodard said the bank would help.
Fidelity will be glad to provide financing in the interim period to assist NMT in meeting the December deadline, Woodard told Wolfe. No co-signers will be needed.
Just a Beginning
It is a start. More is needed.
“Our people here are used to going to a day job, working eight hours and then going home to work four or five more hours,” Edwards said. “They raised hogs or chickens, farm work. People like us cannot live on one job. You have to have something on the side going. The basic idea of having a job to go to is very important for us.”
Robbins is in a crisis that will affect the entire county, but which other parts of the county can do something about.
“We need help,” Edwards said. “We need a big HELP WANTED ad. There are a lot of people retired in Moore County with a background in business who play golf every day. Bring them to town. Ask what advice they could give us. We need them to look around, and advise us. We need a council of economic advisers.”
Such a job description would seek men and women who had been leaders of business, industry, investment, and finance, he said. Like the “dollar-a-year” advisers FDR recruited in an earlier day, such people would make their experience and understanding available to northern Moore.
Lewis urged everyone to spread the word, tell neighbors.
“Get people here excited about helping,” he said. “Get all business owners involved. Say to them, ‘We are going to make over Robbins, what do you think we need to do?’ It might be Robbins’ destiny never to have another mill.”
Even with details of the depot loan to be worked out, northern Moore may be starting to move. NMT hopes Old Elise Depot Center can become heart and symbol of a reinvented Robbins, one that will attract business and jobs.
Following up on an idea put forward at an earlier board meeting by Moore County Chamber President Elyse Hillegass, Commissioner “Buddy” Robinson proposed the town promote its geographic location.
“Robbins is right in the middle,” Robinson said. “We are between the golf capital of the world and pottery country.”
Using Old Elise Depot as a centerpiece and magnet, Robbins can entice travel to and through Robbins on the way up and down N.C. 705 — state designated as “The Pottery Highway” following an earlier NMT initiative. Economic forces already in play hint at future growth even for northern Moore, Edwards said.
Home builders and buyers flooking for places to live and trying to escape high prices farther south are already heading in Robbins’ direction.
“They are coming to Carthage right now,” Edwards said. “We’ll be next.”
John Chappell can be reached at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.
