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Access to town's public email system temporarily closed

The Town's "public mail access" system is down and not accessible to computer users for a period of time. The public mail is an internal communications system for town officials that is open to citizens.


Police Report

The Cornelius Police Department reports these arrests, citations and accidents July 19-26.

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Dresses for Haiti

The women of NorthCross Church invite you to come and sew with them 6:30 p.m. Thurs., Aug. 5. They are making dresses for young girls in Haiti to be shipped by Hancock Fabrics to Double Harvest, a ministry in Croix des Bouquets.  Anyone is invited to help by bringing sewing machines, cotton fabric, simple children’s dress patterns, notions, trims and buttons. Please RSVP to Lynn Whitehill. NorthCross church is located at 11020 Bailey Rd. Ste. H, Cornelius.


Police Report

Arrests, citations and accidents July 15-18, 2010, as reported by the Cornelius Police Department.


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Habitat ReStore has

$1 million in sales

Our Towns Habitat ReStore on North Main Street, Cornelius, achieved its goal of $1 million in sales for the fiscal year of 2009-2010.
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Paving on W. Catawba

July 17: Hunter Construction and Rea Paving will begin working on the asphalt paving and road widening associated with Robbins Park along West Catawba Ave this weekend. The widening will encompass the area between Kings Point Drive and Bluff Point. The road will be one lane with flagmen directing traffic. Crews will be working during the day Saturday and Sunday. They will also begin doing night work next week. This project is expected to take 60-90 days to complete and will require numerous times of traffic control in order to install the curb and gutter, and roughly 700 tons of asphalt. Crews have been instructed to attempt to minimize back ups and allow quick responses for emergency traffic.


New farmer's market

A farmer's market will be held 5-8 p.m. every Friday through October at the gazebo in Jetton Village. There will be produce stands, baked goods with jams and honey, jewelry, herbs and plants, flower bouquets, organic beef, cheeses and seafood.


Youth muscians wanted

The Cornelius Youth Orchestras (CYO) are holding three informational open houses and auditions this summer.  Open houses will be held 6:30-8 p.m. July 20, July 27 and Aug. 10 at Cornelius Town Hall, 21445 W. Catawba Ave. Reservations are requested; please contact Nanette Haraden 704-576-7270.

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Cornelius Pets

Looking for a pet?

There's some great dogs and cats to be had! Click on full story for the Cornelius Animal Shelter Inventory

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School News

Davidson Supporters Surpass Annual Fund Goal

Davidson alumni, parents and friends have demonstrated their belief in the importance of the college and its mission through record contributions to the college’s Annual Fund.

In closing the books recently on the 2009-10 fiscal year, Davidson fundraisers announced Annual Fund contributions of $10.776 million. Despite the gloomy national economy, that substantially surpassed the goal of $9.25 million, and set a new record for total gifts to the Annual Fund.

Moreover, a record 10,055 of Davidson’s 16,497 active alumni were donors, giving Davidson a 61 percent participation rate — the highest of any college or university in the nation this year. It also marks the eighth year in a row of contributions by 60 or more percent of alumni. 

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Student honored

Austin Felker was recently recognized as a member of the Sigma Alpha Lambda National Leadership and Honors Organization at UNC Chapel Hill. Felker will begin his sophomore year at UNC Chapel Hill in August.  He is the son of Eric and Sandra Felker of Cornelius.


Senior News

Good night, sleep tight -

July 2010 edition

JOANNE AHERN
Seniors Columnist

Sleep, like exercise and nutrition, is essential for good health and general well being. We always intend to get the job done, but more often than not, we just can’t get a good night’s sleep.

Oh, we use excuses like “now that I’m older, I don’t need as much sleep.” Or:

“I snore a lot but I don’t think that’s a problem.”

“I’ll catch up on my lost sleep by sleeping longer tomorrow.”

“My obesity, hypertension, diabetes and depression have nothing to do with my poor sleep quality.”

“I sleep during the day so it’s OK that I don’t sleep well at night.”

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Senior Center Activites --

July 2010 edition

Check out these activities at the North Mecklenburg Senior Center on West Catawba Avenue.

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Washington may not have slept here,

but Cornelius is alive with history

Jack Conard: To long-time residents, “old” Cornelius is simply “Cornelius”

By Dave Yochum
If the past informs the future, as the saying goes, then we should be more careful about what’s left of Cornelius history. It’s fast disappearing in big ways and more subtle ways. For example, the correct way to pronounce “Jetton” (as in Jetton Road) is J’tun with the accent on the second syllable. In light of the extraordinary increase in our population, the number of long-timers who know how to say the family name are minuscule compared to the number of newcomers who say J’ton, rhymes with on.

But there’s a difference, and it’s an important, since it matters how one’s name is pronounced. One should be aware that long-time, multi-generation residents of Cornelius refer to the old part of town as Cornelius; newcomers, of course, refer to the original Cornelius as “Old Cornelius.”

Generations of Mount Zion Methodist kids knew there was at least one spring back behind the outdoor sanctuary where Revolutionary War soldiers slaked their thirst. It was plowed over earlier this year by the developers of Antiquity.

Distinguished gathering: Men of Smithville many years ago. Can you identify any?

Look on an old map and you’ll see Bethel Church Road was called River Road before Duke Power dammed the Catawba River.

James E. “Jack” Conard Jr. knows all these things well. He lives in a house built sometime before 1905, the year Cornelius was incorporated. He grew up playing up and down Main Street, and hiking down River Road with the Boy Scout troop at Mount Zion.

More importantly, he is one of a handful of people actively trying to preserve the town’s past. He has thousands of old photos filed away, preserved as best he can in the confines of his own makeshift museum, a house that looks like it could suffer in a stiff breeze.

But it’s home and it has been home to members of the family for three generations. Almost every square inch of the interior walls are decorated with old photos and magazine covers and even calendars from car dealers in the Packard era.

The kitchen is the nerve center of this combination research lab, archeology exhibit and art show. Conard is the curator, having started as a boy collecting this and that, a church bulletin here, an old newspaper there. He researches families through graveyards, census data and personal interviews.

1944: Atwell Motor Co. calendar

He stores electronic images of photos on a personal computer, next to a phone, a flatbed scanner and a view of his back yard, the scene of many Labor Day parties. There is no air conditioning, but thanks to screen doors and full-grown trees, the house is comfortable. He turns WDAV off when opera kicks in on Saturday.

On a recent summer morning Conard is excited to learn that a member of one of the oldest families in Cornelius is still quite alive, albeit in a nursing home in Charlotte. He is making plans to visit her, with photos in need of proper names and a little background.

“What I’m working on mainly is getting names on pictures, stories on people, who was married to who and who worked where,” Conard says. Fascinating stories abound. The scion of a plantation family, Clifton Eugene Smith, saw to it that black families had sufficient land for their own community, now known as Smithville.

Conard’s father moved here from Thomasville and worked for the sheriffs department for many years. James E. Conard was part of the Mecklenburg County rural police in the 1950s.

Jack Conard Jr. remembers the Confederate Reunion held for decades on the grounds of Mount Zion the first week in August. Once the last Civil War reunion was held in 1949, a carnival came every year, setting up on the ball field near Legion Street. Like most every youngster in Cornelius, Conard would save money all summer and spend every penny when the carnival was in town.

Halloween came next and the seven Caldwell sisters went all out. Conard says they dressed up like witches and served hot chocolate from an old cauldron in front of their house on North Main where Patrick Joseph & Associates is now located. Out of the seven sisters, only two were married, so the tradition lasted many years. Christmas was a quieter affair, with the annual Christmas parade being a newer phenomenon.

Conard says the parade started in the late 1980s, when he started wanting to preserve Cornelius history. In 1989, he began meeting with a group of Cornelius people who have breakfast every Saturday at a fast-food restaurant and visit with each other. Now, 20 years later, some are in their 80s and Conard himself is 62 and not particularly well. He has recently had quadruple bypass surgery. Recovery has been slow.

Conard still goes, despite a cough that indicates fluid in his longs. “It’s a good way for me to ask them questions about things I can’t remember. There are less and less of the old timers around here anymore,” he says.
Time is running out to collect the stories and photos and put them in a safe place. Some people want Conard’s photo collection to go to Davidson College. Some have suggested UNC-Charlotte, which has appropriate preservation capabilities.

It’s been a two-decade labor of love. What happens if he is hit by a car tomorrow? “No telling,” Conard says. He and his mother (“Don’t mention her name or she’ll be mad.”) are the only members of the family left.
“There’s no way to preserve anything anymore,” he says.

History in Cornelius

While there is a small historical exhibit at Cornelius Town, some serious history is collected in the “Smith History Room,” a sizable collection at Mount Zion Methodist Church. Named for Miriam Whisnant’s parents, Mary Reid Smith and Clifton Eugene Smith — the benefactor of Smithville, the collection is open to the public by appointment.

Mrs. Whisnant, who spent five years on the Historical Commission, says the huge influx of people from other parts of the country means there’s less interest in town history than there might be. Everyone’s sense of roots is somewhere else, it seems.

Indeed, a proper town museum is not high on the agenda at Town Hall.

The first step toward a town museum is to collect “all of our treasures and stories, so as not to lose them,” says Mayor Jeff Tarte. “We need to find a place of safe keeping until we can publicly display them at some future date. We need somebody to step forward and take on this critically important task.”

To visit the Smith History Room, call Mount Zion at 704-892-8566.

We want to hear from you


soundoffcornelius@gmail.com
or 704-906-7871


Area Events

Hawaiian Luau for seniors set for Aug. 18

The third annual Hawaiian Luau will be Wednesday Aug. 18 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the North Mecklenburg Senior Center, 18731 West Catawba Ave. The Luau, which will include food, games, entertainment, a bake sale and a silent auction, is open to everyone in the community. Proceeds from the event will benefit all older adults in the Lake Norman community in the form of creating new programs, lectures, exercise classes and social events. Admission is $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the event.


Kiwanis golf outing has sponsorships opportunities

The Lake Norman Kiwanis annual golf tournament is Aug. 30 at Cowans Ford Country Club. Sponsorships are available, including the gold level, which includes two free golfers and on-course signage, as well as recognition in advertising. The price is $600. Silver level includes one free golfer for $300. Individuals are $95. Net proceeds will benefit local community causes such as the Ada Jenkins Center and Barium Springs Home for Children. More info: Brenda Carsey, 704-942-5020 or brendacarsey@kw.com


Bluegrass Saturdays

Cornelius Presbyterian Church’s presents “Bluegrass Saturdays” 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Aug. 7, 14, 21. Free. BBQ available for purchase and a bake sale will benefit mission projects. Craft and art items will be for sale. Booths are available to rent to sell items. Held at the church lawn, 21209 Catawba Ave., at the corner of West Catawba and Church Street, Cornelius. Details: 704-892-5577 or email carld@bellsouth.net.


National Night Out

The Cornelius Police Department will hold National Night Out 7-9 p.m. Tues., Aug. 3. at Jetton Village. Live music, food, games and a special guest appearance by Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story 3. Free.


Hot August Night party

A Singles over 40 club Hot August Night Party & Dance 7 p.m. Sat., Aug. 21 at the Havana Social Club, 17105 Kenton Dr., Cornelius. DJ to play all requests, appetizers. $10 at the door. RSVP: 704-500-9305.

 


Great Chili Cook Off

The Rotary Clubs of Mooresville and Troutman will host their second annual charity chili cook off 11.m.-5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 25 at Mooresville Town Square. Proceeds from the event will benefit Our Towns Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Mooresville Christian Mission, Mooresville Soup Kitchen, Health Reach and other non-profit organizations. Chili cookers from around the area are invited to vie for the best chili recipe in town. In addition to the chili cook off and tasting, there will be music, games, demonstrations, booths and displays. Details: tcox@ourtownshabitat.org.


Cornelius Cooks

Semi-retired couple enjoy a good meal and lake living

MAYS

When Ansley and Walter Mays thought about retirement, they knew they wanted to move from Charlotte to be near water.

They thought about the beach, and then thought about the upkeep. That left Lake Wylie or Lake Norman.

“We said ‘So let’s just go ahead rather than wait’,” says Ansley Mays. “I guess we’ve always been water people, so finally we’re getting our dream.”

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Streets of Cornelius

Blue Stone Harbor

Blue Stone Harbor is chock full of nautical names, a hallmark of some Lake Norman neighborhoods. Some communities get the names right, some wrong (America Cup in The Peninsula is one example of getting it wrong.) But in the case of Blue Stone Harbor, the street names show a genuine appreciation of yachting.

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Home Sales

Property Transactions -

July 2010 edition

These are recent property transactions in Cornelius and Davidson over $200,000 as recorded by the Mecklenburg Register of Deeds.

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Property transactions -

July 2010

 

These are recent property transactions in Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville recorded by the county Register of Deeds in Mecklenburg.

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New Corporations

New corporations —

July 2010 edition

These corporations in Cornelius and Davidson have registered with the N.C. Secretary of State.

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