Perdue: Finishing I-485 still a priority (Char O)
Governor says during visit to Charlotte she’s ‘working aggressively’ to find a way to pay for the loop’s final leg.
By April Bethea
[email protected]
Posted: Tuesday, Sep. 15, 2009
Gov. Bev Perdue said Monday she is continuing to work with local leaders to find a way to continue work on Interstate 485, saying it “makes no sense that the road dead-ends.”
Completing the outer belt has been a frequent talking point – and source of angst for some residents – since the governor promised in February to start construction on the last leg of the loop by the end of the year. Recently, many local leaders have resisted a state proposal to start working on the loop by shifting money away from a planned widening of Independence Boulevard.
Perdue said she would understand if local leaders decided not to move ahead with completing I-485 because it would take money away from the Independence project. “(But) I’m still really working aggressively trying to figure out a way that we can have 485,” she said.
Perdue’s comments came at the end of a busy day in which she sat in on classes at an area high school, greeted diners at a church and visited the owners of a new small business.
Perdue pledged last year that she would visit Charlotte at least once a month.
But the latest trip comes after a survey by a Democratic polling group that found 58 percent of respondents thought the governor has not been attentive enough to the needs of the city. .
Still, Perdue was greeted warmly at different stops on Monday, at times swarmed by students, community leaders and other residents who shook her hand or posed for photos.
Perdue spent part of the morning learning how students use advanced technology at Northwest Cabarrus High. In a laboratory, teens used iPods to solve math problems and studied environmental science using the virtual Second Life program.
Perdue later headed to the United House of Prayer church on Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte. Among the attendees: state Sen. Malcolm Graham, state Rep. Kelly Alexander and Charlotte City Councilman Michael Barnes.
Perdue ended the public stops with a trip to Savory Moments, a gourmet shop that opened last month on Old Statesville Road in north Charlotte. Jodi Wright, who co-owns the shop with sister Heather Scovel, is a recent graduate of the new FastTrac program that helps unemployed workers interested in starting their own business.
Wright is the first of the program’s 58 graduates to launch a business, said George McAllister, regional director of the state’s Small Business and Technology Development Center.
Perdue toured the gourmet shop, even purchasing a lasagna dish and chocolate dessert to take home.
