Aug. 7. By Dave Vieser. Nannie Potts Lane, a new 1/3 mile road designed to relieve traffic on Catawba Avenue east of I-77 in Cornelius should be open by Labor Day. Crews from Blythe Construction were putting the finishing paving touches on the road this week, along with the addition of a turning lane on Hwy. 21.

The project cost $1.29 million with funds coming from the first Town Transportation Bond Issue approved in 2013.

NANNIE POTTS WAS FIRST ELECTED TO THE TOWN BOARD IN 1983, GIVING A VOICE TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

The road is named for the late Nannie Potts, the first—and only—female African American mayor of Cornelius. She was elected to the Cornelius Town Commission in 1980 and later received the Top Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award From Business Today. The devoted church worker at Torrence Chapel AME Zion passed away in 2018 after a lifetime of community service that included developing and running an after-school program at Cornelius Presbyterian Church

The new two-lane road with a 25 mph speed limit will run from Statesville Road/Hwy. 21, to Smith Circle, where motorists can take the existing road directly to Catawba Avenue which is a signalized intersection.

While Nannie Potts Lane is designed to relieve traffic volume on Catawba Avenue, it will not connect to the Smithville neighborhood, according to Town Manager Grant.

“The Smithville community did not have a consensus to connect the neighborhood to Nannie Potts Lane at this time,” Grant said. A future connection to South Hill Street would be relatively easy to add, he said.

NANNIE POTTS, LEFT IN THIS PHOTO, RECEIVED THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM BUSINESS TODAY