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Money from group’s 1st golf tourney goes to youth sports fields

LEIGH PRESSLEY

The Belmont Optimist Club raised $1,700 with its first golf tournament on June 23 at Linwood Springs Golf Course.

Thirteen teams participated in the captain’s choice tournament, which benefited the club’s new youth football and baseball fields at Duke Energy’s Allen Steam Station.

Community sponsors were: Catawba Grill, Ceres Transportation Group, Diversified Printing Techniques, Grahams Fish Camp, Mid Carolina Cardiology, NAPA, Patrick Yarns, RBC Centura Bank, R.J. Gators and Rollins Insurance.

“We’re trying to raise up to $50,000 through several fundraisers we’ve planned for the year,” said tournament coordinator Jeani Reagan. “There’s an enormous cost associated with the establishment of these fields.”

Duke Energy owns the land where the fields are under construction at the Allen Steam Station. The Optimist Club will develop the property for its youth sports programs by installing lights, bleachers and fields.

“We’ve cleared the land and had it marked for two football fields and two baseball fields,” says Reagan. “We’ve just finished the lighting, which is the major expense. We’ve also seeded the fields, and we’re letting them grow to get ready for next year. We hope to start using the fields by next baseball season.”

Currently, Belmont Optimist teams play football at South Point High School and Holbrook Middle School. Baseball teams have played at various city-owned fields in Belmont and one existing field at the new athletic site.

The club sponsors five football teams, five cheerleading squads, four baseball teams, a girls’ softball program and a high school oratorical contest for local youth. Most kids involved in the Optimist Club’s athletic programs are ages 5 to 12 and live in Belmont.

“Duke is pretty involved in our community, and they understood the need we had with more than 350 children participating in various programs,” says Reagan. “It was vital that we had a place for them to play.”

In addition to the golf tournament, Belmont Optimist plans a raffle with cash prizes during the current football season and a 5K race later this fall.

Raffle tickets are $5 each. First prize is $500, followed by $300 for second prize and $100 for third prize. The drawing will be held during the first home game in September.

Each of the approximately 250 football players and cheerleaders have been encouraged to sell at least five tickets by Sept. 6. Prizes will be awarded to the top sellers.

The Winners

Here are the winners in the Belmont Optimist Club Golf Tournament:

First place: Josh Fortenberry, Jarrod Gibson, Tony Gibson, T.J. Hudson.

Second place: Ricky Rowe, Chris Auten, Randy Crainshaw, Johnny Blackburn.

Third place: Hunter Armstrong, Kirk Crawford, Michael Gulledge, Keith Moses.

Longest drive: Rodney Allman.

Hole-in-one: Ricky Rowe.

Double eagle: Kelvin Reagan.

Closest to the pin: Mark Crunkleton and Tom Beaghen.

source article: http://www.charlotte.com/494/story/224726.html

Way to go Optimist Club ! The land down Boat Club Road has long been used by the Optimist Club over the years for baseball. It is good to see a resurgence of interest and focus on positive development.

The Optimist’s had a really cool Oyster Roast several years ago. We are sure it was time-consuming, but it was a great fundraiser.

Speaking of fundraisers, The Belmont Rotary Club had a unique theme at “A Taste of Belmont” last spring, the Roaring Twenties. The costumes looked great… the Rotary produced a fundraiser for several years aways back, called, “Rotaters”,  french-fries. Were sold at the HS football games. They made good money until the SPHS Booster Club felt that they were cutting into the Booster Club profits. Rotary sold them at the Garibaldi-fest a few years too.

Their fundraising money went into the Stowe Park restroom facility and to the Belmont Rotary Baseball Team.   

Growth strategy for Belmont discussed for more than a year

JOE DEPRIEST

jdepriest@charlotteobserver.com

The talk has gone on for more than a year.

Now, Belmont’s new comprehensive land-use plan is coming down to the wire.

On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to vote on what has been described by leaders as a road map for future land use in the fast-growing city.

“The real challenge is that the plan doesn’t end up on a shelf gathering dust,” said councilman Irl Dixon. “We want to make sure it’ll be used and looked at and enforced.”

Mayor Pro Tem Charlie Flowers still hadn’t made up his mind on how he’ll vote.

“I have some reservations about some of it,” he said. “I’m afraid it could be used to discriminate against the poor and middle class. I’ll be studying and praying over this all weekend.”

The plan was drafted by HNTB, a national consulting firm with an office in Charlotte.

City Manager Barry Webb said the land-use plan cost $118,000 and a separate transportation plan $25,000. The city got $22,950 in state money for the transportation part, he said.

To get input from residents, Belmont and HNTB held three public forums before a public hearing in July at the Gaston College East Campus and Textile Technology Center.

Residents have praised the plan’s vision, but asked how it will address issues beyond Belmont’s control, such as crowded Gaston County schools and congested state roads.

A few also have asked whether the plan is focused on creating a bedroom community for newcomers instead of preserving small-town character for longtime residents.

The plan designates several areas for certain types of land use.

For example, Main Street and adjacent streets should be mostly retail and community buildings, while Wilkinson Boulevard should be a commercial center, according to the plan.

Dixon said the land will be a guide as Belmont continues to grow.

“Nobody will ever be completely satisfied with it,” he said. “But without the plan there would be chaos.”

The Belmont City Council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 115 N. Main St. For information, call 704-825-5586.

source article: http://www.charlotte.com/gaston/story/224465.html

OVERLOOKING LAKE WYLIE

IN MY OPINION Finally, my visit to a special place The late Daniel Stowe’s Seven Oaks Farm, with its chateau, is a treasure There it stood in the woods on a hill overlooking Lake Wylie.

The big house I’d wanted to see for so long. A 16,000-square-foot French chateau that textile executive and philanthropist Daniel Stowe built in 1972 on his Seven Oaks Farm.

Construction took 3 1/2 years. The house had Tiffany glass along with old-style Charleston brick; a metal roof and antique copper lamps from Edinburgh, Scotland. Inside, treasures came from all over Europe and the United States. Local history was included: wooden beams in the kitchen came from Belmont’s Chronicle Mill, built in 1901 by Stowe’s father, textile pioneer Robert L. Stowe Sr..

My hope had been to interview Daniel Stowe at his castle-like home where the Catawba and South Fork rivers come together.

But I never got the chance. Stowe’s health declined after he suffered a stroke in 2002, and he died July 24, 2006, at 93. My first look at his house was last week when I went there with Stowe’s nephew, Robert L. Stowe III.

By then, the house was empty and had a faded look.

“It’s been going down,” said Stowe, who has many family memories wrapped up in the house. “It doesn’t take long.”

I’d come at a historic time. Stowe said a contract is in progress with Crosland Charlotte to develop about 700 acres of Seven Oaks Farm. No definite plans have been announced, but Robert Stowe said it will likely be a mixed-use residential community.

The riverfront house will be included in the package, and the developer may or may not keep it, Stowe said.

Either way, the landscape will change. One of the Carolinas’ prime locations will take on a new look.

The whole region is changing, but I’ll be watching the Seven Oaks property with special interest.

Not only is it where two major Carolinas rivers meet, but it’s near a major regional tourist attraction: Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.

In 1991, Stowe donated $14 million and about 400 acres from his farm for the garden.

Money from the Seven Oaks land sale would go to the garden, possibly creating an endowment to cover operating costs, Robert Stowe said.

Keeping the garden financially sound is important. It’s one of Gaston’s biggest assets. The garden also preserves a large and diverse chunk of the land Daniel Stowe loved so much.

`Continuity of life’

Cicadas droned in the woods the morning I walked the Stowe property. In the distance, you could also hear the faint hum of boats. There was probably a good breeze out on Lake Wylie. Where I stood, the air hung musty and heavy and was full of gnats.But I was glad to be there. Seeing the house and trees and lay of the land helped me understand Daniel Stowe better.

“I have always felt the South Fork area is where I belong,” he wrote in his book, “By the Waters of the South Fork.”

He’d discovered that fact early in life. Stowe’s father bought an 82-acre farm in the area in 1901, the same year he founded what would become an N.C. textile empire. It was an exciting time for the region. That same year, the Catawba Power Co., forerunner of Duke Energy, dammed up the Catawba River, creating Lake Wylie.

As a child, Daniel Stowe rode the South Fork area with his father, soaking in its sights, sounds and history. He remembered passing the hillside where he would one day build a dream house.

Stowe put together his Seven Oaks Farm piece by piece, beginning in the 1940s.

Eventually, he’d buy about 1,200 acres. Seven Oaks was a working farm. Stowe took pride in not only preserving the land but restoring it to a healthier condition. Erosion damage was widespread and decades of cotton farming had drained nutrients from the soil.

In 1947, Stowe built a weekend retreat on the property. When the house burned in 1963, he began thinking about something bigger, a permanent home at the site. Not only for himself, but all the nice things he’d collected in his world travels.

The new house was “my finest opportunity to express my concept of the continuity of life,” Stowe wrote.

Viable garden

As we stood in front of the empty house, Robert Stowe III remembered his uncle’s place in better times.

He told me about big family dinners there at Christmas and interesting games that kept the kids entertained.

Sleeping over was always fun because bedrooms were full of cameras and gadgets his uncle collected. Stowe also enjoyed spending time in the library among the many volumes of art, travel and biography.

“The house was really spectacular, ” Stowe said. “But I can’t say it was real homey. The library and bedrooms were homey. But the rest was very formal.”

Preserving the big house on the hill would be nice. But it’s the land that matters. I hope the development that goes there will complement and strengthen the botanical garden.

Stowe, who is on the garden board of directors, said the family has worked hard to include conditions in the contract to ensure that happens.

“This development will make the garden viable and assure its future,” he said.

Daniel Stowe was a textile magnate who did things first class. He also had vision. I’m glad he loved the land, and made a notable contribution to our area.

Joe DePriest: 704-868-7745; jdepriest@charlotteobserver.com

Source article: http://www.charlotte.com/gaston/story/224463.html